UPDATE: Route 202 Still Closed

A huge tree still hung precariously over one of the busiest roads in Central Bucks on Wednesday, just another casualty of unprecedented storm damage.

New Britain Borough still is awaiting the arrival of a PECO or PennDOT crew to tackle the tree down across Route 202 near Keeley Avenue, borough mayor David Holewinski said Wednesday.

Hurricane Sandy brought the tree down earlier this week, and it has remained there since.

"We’re trying to get somebody out to handle it, but they can’t give us any idea of when they might be out here," said Holewinski.

The mayor said he has spoken with Ted Dorand, the municipality's PECO liaison, and gave him the location of all trees known to be down on roads or wires in New Britain.

Dorand couldn't give him an estimated time when the utility would be able to respond, Holewinski said.

Until that happens, the busy road that connects Central Bucks remains closed. Drivers are being detoured over Tamenend Avenue to avoid the closure.

Meanwhile, Holewinski said power remains out to nearly everyone in the 3,100-person town.

"To my knowledge, no one has power. The only ones who have power are those who have a generator," said Holewinski, who is without power himself.

PECO has about 700 customers in New Britain Borough. The company's outage map gives only a range of customers out, but the "501 - 1,500" designation seems to back up Holewinski's assessment of total or near-total power loss.

Many in the borough have been helping each other out, checking on older neighbors and making sure people have food and water as they wait for power to be restored, the mayor said.

Still, Holewinski said he has sympathy for the company, which he described as "overwhelmed." 

"I’m not one who gives people a pass real easily, but I’m more apt to give PECO a pass this time," said the mayor. "In this case, I think all of us just need to realize the magnitude of the damage and the magnitude of that storm.

"This shows us it’s going to come down to people helping people," Holewinski said. "That’s the spirit that we all need to pick up and learn from this."

PECO has said that it hopes to have 85 to 90 percent of its customers in Bucks County restored with power by Friday.

Holewinski said he has been told PECO is aiming for 11 p.m. on Wednesday to have power back on to New Britain customers.