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Community Corner

Some Still Powerless in Doylestown

In Bucks County, 70,000 PECO customers remain without electricity following Hurricane Irene.

Clear, blue skies returned to the Doylestown area today, giving no hint to the brash power Hurricane Irene unleashed on Sunday.

But it wasn’t entirely back to normal for many residents and businesses, whose power was cut off during the storm.

PECO crews have significantly reduced the number of homes and businesses going without power since the massive storm hit the region this weekend, but thousands still remain without electricity after enduring power outages – some with no relief. And the wait could go on until the weekend.

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Locally, the latest figures are this: As of 4:15 p.m. today, 104 PECO customers in Doylestown Borough and 508 in Doylestown Township still have no power.

Early this morning in Doylestown Borough, about 1,000 customers, including downtown, the west end and areas around borough hall, were affected by the power outage.

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By mid-afternoon, though, much of that seemed to be remedied, according to John Davis, borough manager.

“It’s kind of like trying to deduce what’s happening in a big area from a lot of pinpricks,” he said.

Power has been restored to most, if not all, of the downtown area, he said, and traffic signals are functioning again.

No one in the eastern section of the borough, including the neighborhoods of Maplewood and Orchard Farm, ever lost power, he added.

“We’re lucky overall.”

In neighboring Doylestown Township, the figures were slightly higher, according to manager Stephanie Mason - about 1,600 this morning, with figures estimated around 1,500 by this afternoon.

"Obviously we’re asking for everyone’s patience while PECO tries to restore power," she said.

Neighborhoods such as Teversall and Doylestown Hunt were affected as well as Central Bucks YMCA. Also pockets of customers along Lower State and Almshouse roads were without electrical service, she said.

The township has about 6,000 residents and 300 businesses.

"I think we fared pretty well. We were lucky. People took it very seriously, and we were prepared."

Figures released by PECO mid-afternoon today show about 168,000 customers in the five-county service area remain out of power - 70,000 of those are from Bucks County.

Earlier today, PECO spokeswoman Cathy Engel Menendez listed the figure at 81,000, so 11,000 Bucks Countians have gotten power restored since this morning.

Yesterday morning’s figure was 79,000. The increase was due to a second wave of the storm passing through the area Sunday afternoon.

“Even though the rain had stopped, we had very strong damaging winds continuing up to nightfall, so we had new outages coming in,” Engel Menendez said.

PECO workers and fill-in crews from other areas already have restored service to 300,000 in the five-county service area since the storm began.

“We really need people to understand that there are 5 million all along the East Coast without power,” she said. PECO crew’s are concentrating their efforts on repairing damage – such as downed electrical lines and poles – caused by the storm and restoring service.  

Originally PECO representatives said it might take up to 2 weeks to fully restore power. That figure has changed, said Engel, with predictions that 90 percent of its customers should have power restored by Wednesday evening and then everyone by the holiday weekend.

After being out since early Sunday afternoon, Peddler’s Village, Buck County’s shopping mecca in nearby Lahaska, had its power restored as of 2 p.m. today.

Shops will have an optional opening today. Shop owners whose stores have basements were advised to check them for water upon return.

Giggleberry Fair is open as well.

Cock 'N Bull, Earl's Bucks County and Sweet Lorraine's will be closed for lunch and dinner today. However, they will open Tuesday for regularly scheduled hours. Hart's Tavern anticipates opening at 5 p.m. today with a limited menu.

As of 10 this morning, a posting on DoylestownPatch’s Facebook page said Chestnut Grove in Doylestown Township had been without power for 20 hours.

Portions of some roads had also been closed in Buckingham, mostly due to downed trees involving utility wires, according to Jim Kettler, emergency management coordinator. Those roads included Lower Mountain, Upper Mountain, Spring Valley, Mill, Ash, Church School and Anderson roads.

 

 

 

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