Tri-State area power outages, storm damage during tornado watch

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- It was a fast-moving storm but it stuck around long enough to do some damage Saturday.

The power was out for several hours at Conshohocken State Road and Woodbine Avenue. That's where the storm knocked a large tree onto a power line.

It was a powerful storm that brought heavy rain, intense wind, and flashes of lightning. Drivers navigated through water on Rock Hill Road in Bala Cynwyd.

"The rain was pretty hard," Steve Schmidt said. "Wind and lightning were bad, and like I said, it shook the house when it hit."

Schmidt was at his home near where the tree went down. When he says he heard a loud bang and the power went out around 6 o'clock Saturday night.

"I think the pole got hit by lightning," Schmidt said. "It got split in half over there. And there were some trees down the other direction as well."

PECO arrived on the scene to assess the damage.

"We're waiting for the tree crew to get here, but in the meantime, we're going to cut some isolation in on the power lines to get some of the customers' power back on until we can get this pole replaced and this tree out of the area where the pole came down," foreperson at PECO, Janeen Priano said.

If you smell natural gas or see downed power lines, officials say to leave the area immediately and notify your utility company.

As the Tri-State area was under a severe thunderstorm watch that escalated to a tornado watch, CBS News Philadelphia took a look at the power outages and damages around our area.

For PECO in Pa, there are 260 active outages as of 10:11 p.m. with over 18,000 customers affected.

Atlantic City Electric in New Jersey has 93 active outages as of 10:10 p.m. with a little over 3,000 customers affected.

Delmarva Power in Delaware and Maryland has 162 active outages as of 10:12 p.m. with over 10,000 customers affected.

Below is some coverage from the CBS News Philadelphia team.

In:
• Pennsylvania
• First Alert Weather
• New Jersey
• Storm Damage
• Tornado Watch
• Maryland
• National Weather Service
• Tornado Warning
• Power Outages
• Delaware