Wind storm outages dwindling; some businesses restored Thursday
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Most of the estimated 121 West Penn Power customers in Westmoreland County without electricity were expected to have power by the end of the day Friday, the utility said.
Most of the outages are leftovers from Sunday’s wind storm, although a few were added from overnight weather that dropped 2 to 5 inches of snow on the region.
Ligonier Township had the most outages, with 28 customers still without power, followed by Unity, Fairfield and Hempfield. A small cluster of outages in South Huntingdon will require a little more time, with restoration expected by 8 p.m. Saturday.
Some businesses on East Pittsburgh Street in Greensburg and Hempfield did not have their power restored until Thursday night. Hillview Bowling Lanes, Primanti Bros. and Jaffre’s Restaurant spent most of the week in the dark but had power again by about 7:30 p.m. Thursday, managers said.
West Penn spokesman Todd Meyers said the largest outages are always addressed first. “By Wednesday, we cleared the last of the three-digit outages,” he said.
UPDATE: Our crews continue 24/7 efforts to restore about 2,000 customers who remain out of service due to the wind storm. The majority of remaining customers will be restored by late tonight. Yesterday alone, crews set about 50 poles and repaired about 800 spans of wire. 1/4 pic.twitter.com/l9D4ZqUPXf
— West Penn Power (@W_Penn_Power) February 28, 2019
The wind storm downed trees, poles and wires, forced school cancellations and two-hour delays and kept emergency responders busy attempting to make repairs amid difficult conditions.
At one point, about 130,000 West Penn customers were affected.