{"id":10734,"date":"2014-02-08T16:18:09","date_gmt":"2014-02-08T21:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=10734"},"modified":"2014-02-08T16:27:07","modified_gmt":"2014-02-08T21:27:07","slug":"cawley-pledges-state-support-as-storm-repairs-continue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=10734","title":{"rendered":"Cawley pledges state support as storm repairs continue"},"content":{"rendered":"

PECO now says less than 56,000 locations without power \u2014 most to be fixed by Sunday<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

By Mike McGann<\/b>, Editor, The Times<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"ChescoStorm-3\"<\/a>

Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley listens as Chester County Emergency Services Director Ed Adkins talks about the county’s Emergency Operations Center, which has been at high alert all week, following this week’s ice storm that knocked out power to more than 200,000 county residents.<\/p><\/div>\n

WESTTOWN \u2014 The worst is over for most Chester County residents in the wake of this past week\u2019s devastating ice storm, that left hundreds of thousands without power or heat, as Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley came to the county to thank emergency workers and continue to offer the state\u2019s support for recovery and restoration efforts, Saturday.<\/p>\n

Cawley met with all three Chester County commissioners, county emergency services officials, officials from PECO and its parent company, Exelon, to bring all parties up to date as to what had been fixed and what work remained in the coming days.<\/p>\n

While there were widespread outages and property damage all over the county, the worst damage appears to have taken place in the northeastern portion of the county \u2014 where a number of homes were seriously damaged by falling trees and heavy limbs.<\/p>\n

According to PECO CEO and President Craig Adams, less than 56,000 locations \u2014 down from more than 200,000 \u2013 were without power as of Saturday afternoon. A total of 138,000 locations were without power in Southeast Pennsylvania. Adams said that the vast majority of remaining customers would see power back by Sunday night, and that for some 99% of the county, power will be back on by Tuesday at the latest. The exceptions would be a handful of locations in the county in isolated areas.<\/p>\n

\"ChescoStorm-2\"<\/a>

Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley quizzes Chester County Director of Emergency Services Ed Atkins on the status of repairs, following this week’s ice storm.<\/p><\/div>\n

More than 200 roads around the county remain closed, said Chester County Board of Commissioners chairman Ryan Costello, down from 351 closed roads at the peak of the storm. Four of the county\u2019s 911 towers and eight care centers remain running on generator power. Adams said the utility is prioritizing those locations as the restoration work continues.<\/p>\n

Although thousands continue to struggle with no power and no heat, local officials stressed some good news: no fatalities were reported from the storms and subsequent power outage. Some 25 cases of carbon monoxide poisoning were reported \u2014 many from using generators in enclosed areas, some from using charcoal grills indoors and one case where a frustrated resident placed a Duraflame artificial log on his kitchen table and lit it. In the latter case, no serious damage was reported to the home.<\/p>\n

Adams echoed comments that if a home gets too cold \u2014 rather than go to extreme measures \u2014 residents should find other, warmer options.<\/p>\n

\u201cMake the commitment to shelter,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

And while work to finish the job of getting trees cleared and power lines up and running, already it appears come glitches occurred as PECO attempted to work with county officials.<\/p>\n

\"ChescoStorm2014-1\"<\/a>

Chester County Commissioners (from left) Kathi Cozzone, Terence Farrel and Ryan Costello, Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley and PECO CEO and President Craig Adams listen to reports on the status of Chester County in wake of this week’s big storm.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cIf Craig and (PECO parent company Exelon Vice President Denis) Pete (O\u2019Brien) had been here three days ago, we\u2019d probably all be home by now,\u201d said Chester County Department of Emergency Services Director Ed Adkins said.<\/p>\n

And while many residents had similar complaints about the company\u2019s communication as the storm and resulting outage unfolded \u2014 a number of readers contacted The Times noting that repair estimates issued by the company were fluctuating, stating one date and time, then a later, then an earlier time and at times, no information \u2014 Adams said his company was working hard to communicate with local officials and customers, but this storm provided unique challenges. Still, he said, PECO will look for ways to improve, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re always going to be looking for ways for we can improve our communication,\u201d he said. \u201cBut at the same time, we want to make sure that we don\u2019t give out misleading information.\u201d<\/p>\n

County officials said that a number of challenges remain \u2014 beyond restoring power and other utilities and reopening closed roads, including a growing shortage of road salt in the region \u2014 a difficult winter season has used far more than usual, leaving it in short supply, and concerns about a possible heavy storm next weekend.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, much work remains to more thoroughly repair power networks, many of which underwent \u201cinterim\u201d repairs to restore service. Coupled with age of some of the power networks, PECO has work ahead of it in the coming months to increase durability of the network, Adams said.<\/p>\n

\"ChescoStorm-4\"<\/a>

A bird is seen amidst ice-coated tree branches in Cochranville, earlier this week. Similar ice coatings caused trees and branches to shatter and damage utility lines throughout the county. Photo by Dave Lichter.<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Cawley, who toured the Emergency Services command center in the County\u2019s Government Services Building, said there was a bit of good news from the storm: Gov. Tom Corbett\u2019s transportation bill will help to rebuild some of the state\u2019s aging infrastructure, helping to reduce the impact of such events in the future.<\/p>\n

Still, he said, that even with improvements, natural disasters can and will happen, meaning that readiness from state, county and municipal officials will always be paramount.<\/p>\n

\u201cMother nature has a way of reminding us who is in charge,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Those still impacted by the storm now have a new information resource, by calling 211, they can get the latest information on how to get assistance from sheltering to finding power for their mobile devices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PECO now says less than 56,000 locations without power \u2014 most to be fixed by Sunday By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times WESTTOWN \u2014 The worst is over for most Chester County residents in the wake of this past week\u2019s devastating ice storm, that left hundreds of thousands without power or heat, as Lt. Gov. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[3996,2216,1359,1360,1357],"class_list":["post-10734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-chester-county-emergency-services","tag-lt-gov-jim-cawley","tag-peco","tag-power-outage","tag-storm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}