Sep 20, 2003
Electric Service Restored to 355,000 PPL Electric Utilities Customers In First Full Day of Recovery from Isabel
PRNewswire
ALLENTOWN, Pa.
An update on the progress of restoring electricity to customers affected by Isabel.
Situation: In the first full day of recovery work from
the worst storm in PPL's history, company
crews and contractors restored power to
355,000 customers across the 29-county service
area of eastern and central Pennsylvania.
Isabel's tropical storm-force winds in
Pennsylvania left more than 450,000 customers
of PPL Electric Utilities without power. It
affected more than a third of the company's
1.3 million customers. In a region from North
Carolina to Pennsylvania, 5.8 million
customers were without electric service in
Isabel's wake.
PPL Electric Utilities storm emergency team,
which includes line crews backed by damage
assessors and technical, logistical and
administrative support personnel, has
completed more than 900 repair jobs and
restored service to nearly 75 percent of
customers who have experienced power outages
because of Isabel.
More than 1,400 people are working on the
recovery effort around the clock. Today, they
will be joined by line crews from New York,
several New England states, Canada and the
Midwest.
Customers Restored: 355,000 as of 4 a.m. EDT Saturday (9/20)
Customers Without Power: 125,000 as of 4 a.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: About 3,000. Outage calls continued to come in
throughout the day Friday.
Cause of Outages: Tropical storm-force winds causing trees and
tree limbs to fall.
Est. Restoration Time: PPL Electric Utilities expects to have the
majority of the currently affected customers
without service restored by late Sunday, but
it could take until early next week to
complete all of the service restoration.
Restoration efforts now include about 450 line
crews -- nearly double the company's normal
complement of about 240 crews.
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. Additional customer service
representatives are on duty Saturday (9/20) to
help. The company also has assembled people to
make calls to customers who are without power
for more than a day.
Ice and water will be available again on
Saturday for customers without power. PPL
Electric Utilities has arranged for about 120
stores across its service area to provide ice
and water at no charge to customers. For the
locations nearest to their homes, customers
can call the toll-free service number shown
above.
NOTES TO EDITORS: During storm emergencies, reporters can view updated
PPL Electric Utilities storm information by visiting our news Web site at
www.pplnewsroom.com. The StormOutage feature provides system-wide and regional
information.
SOURCE: PPL Corporation
CONTACT: George Lewis of PPL Corporation, +1-610-774-5997, or fax:
+1-610-774-5281
Web site: http://www.pplweb.com/
http://www.pplnewsroom.com/
Quick links.