Thunderstorms bring Philly area power outages, downed trees

A cool front ushered in thunderstorms that downed trees and power lines Monday night and left thousands of people without power into Tuesday. 

More than 66,000 Philadelphia-area residents were reportedly without power as of Tuesday afternoon due to torrential downpours and winds that stretched across the region, impacting New Jersey and New York City. In Pennsylvania, Bucks and Burlington Counties took the brunt of the power outages.

The storm’s aftermath snarled traffic and public transit on Tuesday morning, impacting both NJ Transit and SEPTA. A large tree reportedly toppled over between PATCO’s Woodcrest and Ashland stations Monday night, tearing down power lines.

The National Weather Service reported that the daily rainfall record for July 22 was broken at Lehigh Valley International Airport, with 2½ inches of rain. The previous daily record was 1.54 inches, set in 1938, according to the service.

According to Twitter, high-speed lines out of Ashland and Lindenwood were not running Tuesday. To help with the station closure, PATCO shared on social media that NJ Transit will be assisting commuters to by allowing them to take a shuttle to Woodcrest station.

 

NJ Transit shared on social media that Atlantic City Rail service is suspended Tuesday in both directions, due to a down tree. NJ Transit is cross-honoring rail tickets. 

SEPTA shared on Twitter that all trips to and from Woodland ave are canceled because of wire issues. It was not clarified if these issues were due to the storm or not. 

News of the Philly power outages comes two days after a widespread Brooklyn outage that knocked out power to 50,000 people during the hottest weekend of summer. New Jersey also suffered from a power outage affecting over 200,000 homes and businesses, according to NJ.com. 

The National Weather Service no longer has Philly under any warnings for heat or storms. The weather is expected to clear up by Wednesday and all power  is expected to be restored by then.