Officials say October snowstorm's damage worse than Hurricane Irene

FROM THE EXPRESS TIMES

John Toner, of Lower Saucon Township, sought shelter for a while at a Starbucks. Michele Ryder, of Bethlehem, cleaned up trees felled by heavy snow. Melissa Dale, of Hanover Township, Northampton County, read books.



Those were the lives of the powerless Sunday after a massive October snowstorm swept through the Lehigh Valley and northwest New Jersey, depriving thousands of homes and businesses of electricity.

Scott Surgeoner, a spokesman for FirstEnergy, which includes Metropolitan Edison and Jersey Central Power & Light, said the damage was immense and widespread.

“The damage from this storm is more significant and severe than Hurricane Irene,” said Surgeoner.


Surgeoner said about 256,000 customers, nearly half served by the Reading-based utility, had lost power from Saturday.

It could be Friday before power is restored to some customers, he said.

As of Sunday night, about 152,000 customers were without power in Lehigh, Northampton, Warren and Hunterdon counties, according to the FirstEnergy and PPL Electric Utilities websites.


PPL spokesman Kurt W. Blumenau said of 142,000 customers in its 29-county territory, it hoped to bring up some 34,000 back into service Sunday night.

"We continue to urge customers to prepare for an outage lasting into the week, if they have not already done so," Bluemenau said. "We are still repairing significant damage to our transmission and distribution networks."

Roads throughout Northampton County were littered with fallen limbs, and some roads were completely shuttered. Traffic was jammed in the Bethlehem area as traffic lights without power turned into four-way stops.

Bob Mateff, Northampton County emergency management coordinator, said the damage exceeded Hurricane Irene in some respects.

“What I’m seeing with the damage to the trees and wires is historic,” he said.

Still, he said Sunday night that about 90 percent of main and secondary roads were passable.

In Warren County, Public Safety Director Frank Wheatley said numerous roads remained impassable, as crews were waiting for JCP&L workers to clear wires downed by falling tree limbs.

“The whole county is hit very hard,” said Wheatley. “We do feel that it’s worse than Irene. We didn’t have the amount of trees come down on the power lines as we did with this storm.”

Those without power Sunday tried to make the best of their situation.

Toner, who lives on Evergreen Drive in Lower Saucon Township, said his power zapped out about 3 p.m. Saturday. He, his wife and daughter went to a Starbucks on Sunday afternoon on Schoenersville and Stoke Park roads in Bethlehem to recharge their electronics and warm up.

Toner said his family passed the powerless hours by reading on a Kindle, watching DVDs on a portable player and playing games.

The family toughed it out Saturday night without heat and planned to do the same Sunday night.

"We all slept in the same bed, bundled up and lit candles," Toner said.

Ryder, of the 500 block of West Third Street in Bethlehem, said she used the outage hours Sunday to clean up a large tree that was toppled by the storm.

"We've been pretty busy with tree damage," said Ryder, whose power went out about 1 p.m. Saturday. "During the day we haven't noticed (the outage) much."

Dale, of the 400 block of Bridle Path Road in Hanover Township, said she was concerned about getting heat into her home with temperatures dipping low during the nighttime hours. However, with a gas range, she could still cook.

Ryder and Toner, who have PPL for electricity, both said they think the company is doing what they can to restore service.

Surgeoner said utility officials tried their best to communicate with municipal and county officials to help keep residents informed of the situation. Toner said he followed PPL's Twitter feed for updates and isn't angry about the outage.

"You got to be realistic about it," Toner said. "Of course I want my power back."


http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/breaking-news/index.ssf/2011/10/officials_say_october_snow_sto.html