Politics & Government

UPDATE: Buckingham Surveys Storm Damage

Trees fell, utility poles snapped and several township neighborhoods still are without power.

Devonshire Estates didn't lose power during Hurricane Sandy, and some other Buckingham Township residents got power back Tuesday or Wednesday, said township supervisor Jon Forest.

But while life has been fairly normal for some Buckingham neighborhoods, others still were without power on Wednesday and anxiously awaiting restoration.

Like those in every other Bucks County municipality, Buckingham leaders have spent the past two days evaluating damage caused by Hurricane Sandy. And again like most other municipalities, the damage mainly was caused by downed trees and utility poles.

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"We still have a lot of places without power, but we were very fortunate, considering what happened to the jersey shore and New York," Forest said. "Fortunately we didn’t get anywhere near the amount of rain they thought we'd get. If we had, it would have been a different story."

Among the more serious incidents, two homes in Buckingham were damaged when trees fell on them, Forest said.

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The iconic shopping destination of Peddlers Village was closed for days due to power outages, but electricity was restored around 6 p.m. Wednesday, according to an update from village officials.

Roads that remain closed include Smith Road, between Swamp Road and Forest Grove, because of multiple utility poles down, Forest said. Lower Mountain Road also remains closed between Holicong Road and Street Road, he said.

One thing Buckingham officials plan to look into as things get back to normal is why the township's communication system failed during the storm and its aftermath.

"We’ve had a lot of problem with our communications through Nextel. Everyone has a two-way, but they haven’t worked, so we’re using county radios," Forest said.

The township supervisor praised Buckingham's road and water crew employees, who worked throughout Hurricane Sandy, including responding to a giant tree that had fallen, blocking Rt. 413. The township employees went out during the storm to remove the tree so the important road could remain open.

PECO says it has 9,000 customers in Buckingham Township. According to the company's outage map, more than 3,500 of them still were without power as of early Thursday morning. That figure, though, is simply the top of PECO's scale, which doesn't go into more detail than that.


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