Community Corner
Unseasonable Snowstorm Leaves Tens of Thousands Powerless in Bucks
PECO crews planned to work through the night to try to get the lights - and the heat, for many - back on.
A rare October snowstorm pushed through Bucks County Saturday on its way up the East Coast, leaving as many as 34,000 people in and around Doylestown without power.
The Doylestown area and the Warminster area were hardest hit during Saturday's storm, which dumped at least 4 to 6 inches of heavy, wet snow in Central Bucks.
PECO could not say for sure when the power would be restored to those who had lost it.
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"It’s a little hard for us to predict right now, because we're continuing to see damage from the storm throughout the night," PECO spokeswoman Cathy Engel Menendez said late Saturday. "We think we’ll have customers without service through the weekend, possibly into Monday."
The powerless in Doylestown were part of about 75,000 PECO customers in Bucks County without power, Engel Menendez said. In all, the company had more than 250,000 customers without power during Saturday's storm, she said.
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By 12:30 a.m. on Sunday, those numbers had been reducted to about 63,000 customers without power in Bucks County, part of about 150,000 in PECO's total service area still in the dark. PECO said Saturday's storm was the worst October storm in its history.
The wet snow sat heavily on the branches of trees still bearing their autumn-hued leaves. The additional surface area the leaves offered meant more snow accumulated, increasing the weight on the branches.
In Doylestown, as in so many other communities hit by the storm, trees were cracking and dropping branches, if not toppling over outright, all afternoon and evening.
Darkened neighborhoods, deserted shopping centers and deadened traffic lights were the norm as evening fell Saturday, especially on the north side of Doylestown and out into the more rural parts of Central Bucks.
Downtown Doylestown, for once, seemed somewhat spared; power stayed on, and those who ventured out found downtown eateries doing brisk business.
The National Weather Service's winter storm warning was to remain in effect until 2 a.m. on Sunday.
Once Sunday dawned, though, the storm was expected to taper off and move out, leaving behind sunshine and temps in the 40s.
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