Sep 22, 2003
Overnight Work Pushes Restoration Numbers to 98 Percent
PRNewswire
ALLENTOWN, Pa.
An update on current power outages from Tropical Storm Isabel.
Situation:
After another night of around the clock shift work, PPL
Electric Utilities continues to push toward complete
restoration of its customers following the most damaging storm
in the company's history. More than 1,500 PPL Electric
Utilities' employees, with help from as far away as Iowa and
Canada, have now restored service to nearly 98 percent of the
customers affected by Tropical Storm Isabel.
John Sipics, president of PPL Electric Utilities, said last
night that this was the "largest restoration effort in the
company's history."
More than 500 PPL and contract line crews will continue
working 16-hour shifts until power is returned to the
remaining 10,000 customers.
A storm event is considered large if it causes more than 1,000
individual cases of necessary system repairs. The number of
jobs required to repair Isabel's damage is about 4,000.
Est. Restoration
Times by Region:
-- Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Region: Restored
-- Lehigh Region (including Bethlehem, Allentown):
Restored
-- Bucks and Montgomery Region: Restored
-- Pocono Region (including Monroe, Pike, and Wayne
counties): This afternoon
-- Hazleton/Carbon County Region: This morning
-- Schuylkill County Region: This evening
-- Susquehanna Region (including Lycoming, Snyder,
Northumberland, Montour, Columbia, and Clinton
counties): This evening
-- Harrisburg Region (including Dauphin, Cumberland,
Juniata and Perry counties): Late this evening
-- Lancaster Region (including York, Berks, Chester and
Lebanon counties): Late Tuesday night
It is important to remember that these are estimated
restoration times. Most customers are expected to be
back in service earlier than this forecast. However, a
few scattered customers could receive power later than
this forecast.
Customers
Restored: More than 465,000 as of 4:30 a.m. EDT Monday (9/22)
Customers Without
Power: 10,000 as of 4:30 a.m. EDT Monday (9/22)
Affected Areas: Isabel affected the entire 29-county service area of PPL
Electric Utilities with downed lines and power outages.
The hardest hit areas were in the Harrisburg and
Lancaster regions followed by Schuylkill County.
Number of Repairs
Pending: 1044
Cause of
Outages: Most of the damage from Isabel's tropical-storm-force
winds resulted from broken tree limbs and falling trees
from outside the utility right of way around power
lines where PPL Electric Utilities prunes trees.
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.
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, or fax,
+1-610-774-5281
Web site: http://www.pplweb.com/
Quick links.