Sep 20, 2003
Isabel Update, Sept. 20, 9:00 p.m.: PPL Crews Continue To Make Progress Restoring Power To Customers
PRNewswire
ALLENTOWN, Pa.
This news release is an update of PPL Electric Utilities efforts to restore electricity to customers affected by Tropical Storm Isabel.
Situation: More than 450 PPL and contract line crews have restored
power to 438,000 customers throughout the company's
29-county service territory. The crews have worked around
the clock for the past 48 hours to turn the lights back on
for approximately 90 percent of its customers.
A storm event is considered large if it causes more than
1,000 individual cases of necessary system repairs. Isabel
has already caused 4,200 cases of trouble.
Most PPL customers are expected to be back in service by
Sunday evening. Some areas will not be restored until early
next week because of the sheer volume of trouble cases.
Bob Geneczko, vice president Customer Service said, "It is
never acceptable for our customers to be without power. This
was an unusually damaging storm and we are doing everything
we can to restore power quickly."
The following is a list of estimated restoration times for
all customers by region:
Lehigh Region:
(Including Bethlehem, Allentown)
Sunday afternoon
Bucks and Montgomery Region:
Late Sunday evening
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Region:
Early Sunday afternoon
Pocono Region:
(Including Monroe, Pike, and Wayne counties)
Late Sunday evening
Hazleton/Carbon County/Schuylkill County Region:
Monday evening
Susquehanna Region:
(Including Lycoming, Snyder, Northumberland, Montour,
Columbia, and Clinton counties)
Late Tuesday evening
Harrisburg Region:
(Including Dauphin, Cumberland, Juniata and Perry counties)
Late Monday evening
Lancaster Region:
(Including York, Berks, Chester and Lebanon counties)
Tuesday evening
PPL crews will continue to work around the clock to restore
power. Geneczko said it is important to remember that these
are estimated restoration times. These regions could receive
power earlier than this forecast.
Customers Restored: 438,000 as of 9:00 p.m. EDT Saturday (9/20)
Customers Without Power: 55,000 as of 9:00 p.m. EDT Saturday (9/20)
Affected Areas: The entire 29-county service area of PPL Electric
Utilities in eastern and central Pennsylvania has been
affected.
Number of Repairs Pending: 2,433
Cause of Outages: Fallen trees and tree limbs and down conductors.
Est. Restoration Time: With the progress crews are making, PPL Electric
Utilities expects to restore the majority of
customers currently without service by late
Sunday. It will take until early next week to get
every customer back in service.
Additional Information: Outage figures are updated continuously on PPL's
news media Web site: www.pplnewsroom.com. The Web
site also lists contact information for each part
of the company's service area.
In areas with extensive damage to the electric
delivery system that will take more than a day to
repair or rebuild, PPL Electric Utilities
continues to make thousands of phone calls to
customers to keep them informed and assess any
special needs they may have.
Customers should call PPL Electric Utilities' toll
free number, 800-342-5775 (800-DIAL PPL) to report
outages, fallen wires or special needs.
Because so many of the outages are the result of
fallen trees and tree limbs, in some places wires
are on the ground. People should stay far away
from fallen wires, even if they appear to be
"dead." Call PPL Electric Utilities or 911
immediately.
SOURCE: PPL Corporation
CONTACT: Andy Hallmark of PPL Corporation, +1-610-774-5997, fax
+1-610-774-5281
Web site: http://www.pplweb.com/
Quick links.