Strong Storms Leave Power Outages, Downed Trees And Wires In Its Wake
CARNEGIE (KDKA) -- Thousands of people are still without power as storms continue to rubble through the area, but crews are working around the clock to make repairs.
Carnegie was one of the hardest hit areas on Thursday evening. People who live there say they haven't had power for hours and don't anticipate having it back until Saturday.
For Austin Reffo and his family, it's been almost 24 hours since they've had their lights on.
"It's been terrible," said Reffo, "and it's been a struggle. Right now, we're just getting through it, every minute."
The wind snapped a pole near his place in half, and power lines are now on the ground. It was a common sight across the Pittsburgh area.
In Mount Lebanon, trees were down along Spaulding Road. Duquesne Light was seen making repairs to power lines.
In fact, around 200 crews are now out assessing the damage.
"It's been significant from trees and poles down to landslides. It's really been extensive," Hollie Geitner, the director of communications for Duquesne Light, said.
Geitner says, at one point, around 40,000 customers were impacted. They've restored power for more than half, but say at least 10,000 are still without.
"We know these are challenging times. We're in the middle of a pandemic and this is our top priority, is to get our customers back up,"
said Geitner.
While the focus is repair and restore, they're also keeping an eye on possible storms happening later today.
"It could potentially cause issues, and safety is our utmost concern for our customers," she said.
Duquesne Light says they won't have everything fully restored, meaning power for all won't be on, until Saturday afternoon.