UPDATED: PECO Crews Working To Restore Service To Thousands

UPDATED: 9:59 p.m., Wednesday:

Deb Yemenijian, a spokesperson for PECO, said Bucks County had 77,000 customers without electric service as of 9:30 p.m. The area appeared to be among the hardest hit by Wednesday’s nor’easter that brought nearly a foot of heavy snow and light winds.

PECO has more than 2,600 employees working to restore power and has an additional 1,500 crews from other utility companies and contractors in the region.

Crews in the field were encountering outages caused by the snow, downed trees and branches and other weather-related issues, Yemenijian said.

PECO will work to get power returned as quickly as possible to customers, Yemenijian said. She added that some customers still have been without power due to last Friday’s nor’easter that brought high winds, rain and snow.

UPDATED: 8:46 p.m., Wednesday: 

PECO crews were spotted around the area Wednesday evening, numerous LevittownNow.com readers said.

As of 8:45 p.m., there were just over 18,400 customers without electric service in the Levittown area. The number was an increase from earlier in the day.

PECO has additional crews and assets in the region following last Friday’s storm.

https://twitter.com/BucksCountyGovt/status/971521224424615936

Original Story:

Wednesday morning started out with some rain and light snow. By 1:30 p.m., heavy snow had moved in and roads were covered with slushy snow as tree branches were drooping under the added weight.

Veterans Highway had a tree across it between Frost Hollow and Trenton roads in Middletown, and SEPTA’s West Trenton Regional Rail line had major weather-related problems.

More than 11,000 PECO customers were without power in the Levittown area as of 3:45 p.m.

“I tried to go into work. Trees were blocking the road. Tracker trailers are sideways. Cars are all over the road and sideways. Very unsafe,” LevittownNow.com reader Katlyn Barrington wrote on Facebook. 

Municipal and PennDOT road crews were spread throughout the area as snow fell. However, the battle to keep the roads and highways clear as snow fell at a rate of up to two inches an hour was easily lost in the afternoon.

“In Bucks County, PennDOT has 37 department force trucks and 73 rentals for this storm. Bucks County had requested a Mobile Equipment Team due to higher expected accumulating snow in the county and that includes five wing plow trucks and two graders,” PennDOT spokesperson Bob Kent said.

Speed limits on Route 1 and I-95 were reduced to 45 mph through the afternoon. Restrictions on large trucks were also in place on the Pennsylvania Turnpike from Bristol Township to Harrisburg.

“Although PennDOT crews have been treating roadways, the department’s primary goal is to keep roads passable, not completely free of ice and snow. PennDOT will continue to treat roadways throughout the storm until precipitation stops and roads are clear,” PennDOT officials said.

By 3 p.m., just over 7 inches of snow was reported to have fallen in Lower Bucks County, according to a National Weather Service observer.

Thundersnow was reported in Bristol, Langhorne and Levittown.

The snow was expected to stop by Wednesday evening.