Updated at 4 p.m. with road closures in Kennett Township
The scene across the area was pretty much the same everywhere. Trees were down on the back streets and traffic was heavy on the major arteries. And power was out from Kennett Square to Concord Township and beyond for more than 24 hours.
PECO said more than 250,000 customers were affected during the height of the outage. In Delaware County, 160,000 lost power, and 56,000 were without power in Chester County.
But crews began the tedious process of restoring power from the outage that hit the area shortly after 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 23. Many homes had power restored during the overnight hours from Wednesday to Thursday.
As of noon on Thursday, approximately 48,000 customers remained without service, according to PECO, including 20,000 in Chester County and 23,000 in Delaware County. Sixty-three roads remain closed in Chester County, with Newlin and West Caln Townships the hardest hit, said Patty Mains, a spokeswoman for Chester County’s Department of Emergency Services.
Among the areas that fared better was Pennsbury Township, according to Kathy Howley, township manager in Pennsbury Township, said her township had some outages, but they weren’t as widespread as in other places. Residents who live on Hillendale Road said they never lost power, despite the fact that downed trees closed Hillendale and Fairville Roads.
Other areas were hit harder.
Bill Kirkpatrick, a township supervisor in Birmingham Township, said that as of 10 a.m. on Wednesday, June 24, about 80 percent of Birmingham’s residents were still without power. Trees were down on a number of roads, and Route 926 was closed at South New Street and west of the Brandywine Creek.
Creek Road was also down to one lane in several areas in Birmingham.
It was much the same in Chadds Ford Township, where the village was hit hard. Amanda Serock, Chadds Ford’s township manager, said approximately 988 township properties were without power as of 9:30 a.m.
Leader’s Sunoco couldn’t pump gas, and the traffic light at Route 1 and Creek Road was not working.
Webb and Ring Roads were closed throughout the day because of downed trees. Crews didn’t begin clearing a tree on Ring Road near the township building until Wednesday evening.
Traffic lights at Ring Road and Brandywine Drive remained functioning, but the signal at Route 202 went off and on throughout the day and evening of June 24.
Signals along Road 1 in Concord were out well into the evening and southbound traffic on Route 1 was down to one lane because of scheduled roadwork and because a tree fell into the street near Thornton Road.
Traffic lights were also out along Concord and Smithbridge Roads.
The power outage and related traffic problems also forced the cancellation of two meetings. Chadds Ford canceled its Board of Supervisors workshop on June 24 and Concord Township postponed its Government Study Commission meeting until the week of July 6. The specific date was not yet announced.
In Pocopson Township, the township office remained closed on Thursday; however, voicemail messages were being checked, according to a recording on the township’s phone line.
In some areas, such as Wylie Road in Birmingham Township, tree limbs that had been defying gravity continued to fall on Thursday morning, creating new dangling power lines.
In Kennett Township, road closures included Center Mill between South Fairville and Burnt Mill, Old Kennett between Merrybell Lane and Creek, and Marshall Bridge between Bucktoe and Kaolin. Township officials urged drivers to avoid these sections, explaining that the township has to wait for the wires to be removed prior to removing the trees.
(Top photo: Ring Road is one of many roads that were closed due to down trees and power lines.)
About Rich Schwartzman
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
