Politics & Government

UPDATE: PECO Crews Moving Into Central Bucks

Local officials say power could be back on to Doylestown Borough soon; situation in the townships is less clear.

PECO crews are working in Buckingham Township - and that's good news for Doylestown Borough.

That's because the main power lines that feed the east side of Doylestown Borough actually feed in from a circuit located in Buckingham, borough manager John Davis said Wednesday.

"The fact that PECO trucks aren’t being seen in the borough doesn't indicate that they're not working. We want them working over there" on the Buckingham circuits, Davis said. "That would go a long way to bring power back to a large segment of town."

Find out what's happening in Doylestownwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

As of 1 p.m. Wednesday , the number of PECO customers - residents, businesses, etc. - in Doylestown Borough still without power still remained at about 4,680, Davis said.

PECO spokeswoman Martha Phan said 165,000 customers remained without power as of Wednesday morning. That was down slightly from 170,000 on Tuesday evening.

Find out what's happening in Doylestownwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Here are recent developments:

  • PECO will not give local leaders an estimated restoration time for the whole town or township, local officials said.
  • Davis said some borough residents have been told they may have power back on by 11 p.m. Wednesday night. "Now, that could change in a heartbeat," he said.
  • Bucks County Commissioners said they've been told 85 to 90 percent of the PECO customers without power in the county should be restored by Friday.
  • PECO, PPL and other electric companies typically tackle public safety issues first, then large population centers. That means more rural customers in the townships are likely to be the last to come back online.
  • At PECO's direction, tree company Asplundh has been working on removing some downed trees and tree limbs from Doylestown Borough streets,  including those on Worthington and Magill Lane, Davis said.
  • Large trees down on wires near Our Lady of Mt. Carmel and on Church Street near Burpee Park were still there, as of noon Wednesday.

As for customers of PPL and FirstEnergy (Met Ed), the news isn't much better.

The number of customers in Upper Bucks without power actually increased overnight.

From Hilltown through Quakertown, PPL's outage map showed 22,221 customers without power Tuesday at 5 p.m. Wednesday morning, that figure was up to 22,435.

In Tinicum, Bridgeton, Nockamixon and Durham townships, 5,989 Met Ed customers were without power Tuesday night. That figure was up to 6,015 Wednesday morning.


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