Crews restoring power as quickly as possible
By Monday, April 3, morning, FirstEnergy crews and power line contractors who came to the rescue from as far away as Louisiana had reduced the 19,000 or so West Penn Power and Penn Power customer outages in Butler County to 6,260.
FirstEnergy, the parent company of West Penn and Penn Power, announced that all customers without power from Saturday’s storms — which produced wind gusts of up to 65 mph in the area — would have power restored by 11 p.m. today.
Rural customers likely had to demonstrate the most patience after the storm.
“As in any storm, we’re going after the largest customer counts first,” said Todd Meyers of FirstEnergy.
He said about 160 workers, including First Energy crews and contractors from Pennsylvania and other states, worked 16-hour shifts after the winds subsided to restore power in the county.
He said workers are not permitted to use bucket trucks until winds can be clocked at less than 40 mph due to safety concerns.
The biggest problem with the cold front and accompanying storm system that moved through the county starting at 2 p.m. Saturday was obviously trees falling on power lines, Meyers said.
He said trees that were on the cusp of falling during the winds one week ago on Saturday likely fell during the most-recent storm.
Also, the ground did not have a chance to dry up from the rain Friday.
“So normally healthy trees, they weren’t able to anchor in that saturated ground,” Meyers said.
He said many huge pine trees were uprooted, as pine needle growth on branches acts as a sail when hit by a strong wind gust.
Emergency responders cannot remove trees if wires also are down, meaning the power company’s tree service contractors must remove the trees.
That means blocked-off roads where trees and lines made them impassable, Meyers said.
“There is still a lot of work to be done,” he said Monday afternoon.
Meyers said FirstEnergy is bracing for Tuesday, April 4, when forecasters are predicting severe storm activity in the evening.
“The good news is we have so many contractors around right now,” he said.
Pauline Snyder, 87, has lived at her home on Herman Road in Summit Township for 48 years, but she never saw wind the likes of Saturday.
Snyder, a widow, said 13 trees came down in her yard, but none caused any damage.
She said one tree is touching her house, but did not damage it, while another landed 2 inches from her home.
When Snyder’s power blinked and went off at about 8 p.m. Saturday, her neighbor brought her into her home, which has a generator.
Snyder did lose a number of shingles due to the wind, and tarps were placed on her roof until it can be repaired.
She is awaiting the arrival of an adjuster from her insurance company to view the downed trees and has a roofer coming to give an estimate Tuesday, April 4.
A number of roads remained closed Monday morning due to down trees entangled in wires or utility poles that snapped off or bent over roads during the storm.
