Thousands of Pittsburgh-area residents left without power due to wind gusts, stormy weather
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Thousands of people remain without power due to a combination of strong wind gusts and stormy weather across the Pittsburgh area on Sunday.
Many impacted communities are within Allegheny County, with Duquesne Light saying Sunday night that their crews are working "around the clock to restore service as quickly and safely as possible."
Duquesne Light added that wind gusts of 50-plus mph knocked down trees and broken utility poles across the region. Crews will first work to restore service to those with "critical and emergent needs."
For some, power returned quicker than others.
"It's not like we can do one thing and bring all the customers back at the same time," West Penn Power spokesperson Todd Meyers said.
At their peak, West Penn had 26,000 people without power. Late Sunday night, Duquesne Light was around 55,000.
On Monday, Duquesne Light said in a news release that it requested 50 mutual assistance contractors to aid with storm restoration.
"Damage assessment is still in progress, but winds have led to at least 273 instances of a tree/limb on a wire, 106 broken utility poles and 93 wires down," the company said. "As we continue to monitor the weather conditions, crews are collectively working around the clock to isolate and restore as many customers as possible."
"I heard the wind before, so when it went out, it's still an inconvenience but you kind of understand it," James Stewart said about losing power Sunday night.
Stewart lost his electricity for about half the night. He was happy with the response.
"I was pleasantly surprised and appreciative," Stewart said.
Lauren Pleasant was not as lucky. She lost power around 8 p.m. Sunday and has no word on when it will return. Her biggest concern is a cold house for her and her young children.
"I'm driving around just so my kids are warm and don't have to be in a cold house," Pleasant said.
In Rennerdale, hundreds of people are still without power as of Monday night. The community is not expected to see power restored for days, and residents are tired of what they say is an ongoing problem.
"This is the third time in the last couple of months we've been without power now," resident Chris Mayfield said.
Firefighters in Rennerdale said the community's infrastructure is outdated.
"This has happened to us so many times it really is hopeless," said Brittani Kohn, who lives on Noblestown Road. "I don't know when the power is coming back. In the meantime, i have no heat. My food is all going bad."
Glenn Kocina said he's contact Duquesne Light, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission and government leaders.
"(Duquesne Light) told me they were going to do a frequent outage report and i never heard back," Kocina said. "They also told me there is a priority tier listing. We basically are at the bottom since we are spread out here."
West Penn also has help coming from the eastern side of the state. Both companies said they are working to restore power as quickly as possible. West Penn said some more remote outages may not get power until Tuesday at the latest.
Click here to get the latest outages from West Penn Power. Click here to get the latest outages from Duquesne Light.
