Many still without power after weekend rains
Even with the rain clearing after a weekend-long drench, Butler County residents are still reporting power outages.
Both West Penn Power and Central Electric Cooperative, the two largest electric providers in the county, have customers in the county without power Monday. Central Electric Cooperative reported that most of the outages took place after midnight. Like much of the region, the county has experienced high rainfall over the weekend. Over the last 72 hours, around 5 inches of rain have hit most parts of the county, according to data from the National Weather Service.
According to a release from Central Electric Cooperative, the majority of the outages resulted from knocked over trees striking power lines. Overall, the company has registered 2,000 members without power, 516 of whom are in Butler.
A spokesman for Central Electric Cooperative said that the main power problems in Butler are coming from Middlesex and Clinton Townships, where there are 427 affected member.
“The problems are two telephone company poles are broke from tree damage,” wrote the spokesman, Ken Maleski. “Central Electric's lines are attached to both facilities. One of the poles has been replaced and we are awaiting for the telephone company to replace the other one.”
West Penn Power reports that there are 579 customers in the county without power.
Central Electric Cooperative said in their statement that crews would be out all day on Monday, fixing broken power lines and a spokesman for the company expected power to be restored to customers by this evening.
A spokesman for West Penn Power expected power for their customers to be back by 11 tonight but he also noted that with some power lines still going down into Monday afternoon, some customers wouldn't have power until early Tuesday morning.
The spokesman, Todd Meyers, noted that this weekend's continuous rain capped a soggy summer.
“It's been a wet summer so things are pretty soupy and waterlogged out there,” Meyers said. “The rain has continued unabated and continued to evolve.”
