Thousands Remain Without Power 4 Days After Winter Storm
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BUTLER (KDKA) - Almost four days after a storm dumped snow and ice throughout the area, thousands of people are still without power.
There are countless power companies from all across the Northeast at a staging area in Worthington, Pennsylvania.
Most of the transformers at the site are ready to go and have stickers on them that say, "Butler."
It's been a test of patience for John Schmitt.
"No power, no heat, try to call them, no one answers. It just goes right to voicemail," Schmitt said. "They fixed everyone around our area, except for our street, it took like three days."
He's one of 5,000 First Energy customers who lost power Thursday night in Butler County.
"First two days, I hung out with family and they said it would be on at 11 o'clock at night - that was Saturday. And Sunday, it still wasn't on," he said.
Watch Bob Allen's report --
West Penn Power spokesman Todd Meyers said 500 linemen are leaving around the clock from Worthington, but they just couldn't get ahead this weekend.
"There were many instances where even into Saturday we would restore customers and we would get new customers that were going out of power because of the heavily laden trees kept falling. It was a very active situation," Meyers said.
The new telephone poles are loaded up and ready to go.
"These lines are miles long, 20, 30 miles long more in many instances. And there are not just a tree down near their house and their neighborhood that's causing a problem. It's multiple trees down. tearing down poles, tearing hardware off of poles," Meyers said
All of the new supplies are being loaded up a the Worthington site all day long.