Thousands of power outages persist around Philadelphia days after storm

Downed trees and power lines block a road in Lower Merion Thursday after a massive ice storm blanketed the mid-atlantic region, causing almost a million residents in Pennsylvania to lose power. Credit: Metro file photo

Philadelphia suburbs are still feeling the pain of Wednesday’s massive ice storm, which knocked out power for almost a million people in Pennsylvania and nearby states.

Power outages are being updated live on PECO’s online outage map as repair crews struggle to restore power to the approximately 55,000 customers still without power in the five-county area.

However, progress is being made, as the live map shows the number of customers without power in the Philadelphia area steadily dropping with each update.

Chester County is still the hardest hit by downed power lines caused by falling branches frozen during Wednesday’s storm, with more than 23,000 customers without power.

In Montgomery County, about 13,000 customers are without power, and about 11,000 are without power in Bucks County.

York County has approximately 3,000 customers without power and Delaware County about 2,200 customers are without power.

Philadelphia County experienced some power outages but relatively few, and on Sunday at noon that number was at 395 customers.

On Wednesday evening the total number of people without power was 10 times greater, about 600,000 in the Delaware Valley.

PECO has called it the second worst storm since Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

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