'I Have No Power, No Water, It's Unbelievable': Strong Storms Pack Quite The Punch In Philadelphia Region
ATGLEN, Pa. (CBS) – Strong storms, while brief, stormed through the Philadelphia region on Saturday afternoon, packing a punch with heavy downpours and wind. The storms left behind damage across the area, including Chester County, and thousands of customers in the dark.
About 1,400 people live in Atglen, a Chester County borough, and many on Bethel Church Road are left without power after several trees fell onto electrical wires.
Authorities have the road blocked off with caution tape as a precaution.
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"The power has been out since 4:30, I walked down there about an hour ago, there's nobody there, nobody working on it," Harry Handwerk said. "I couldn't understand it. I talked to my neighbor and I asked if he knew anything and he wouldn't give me any information."
"Andy, my good friend from church, he is a blessing. He's going to let me sleep at his place," Handwerk added. "I have no power, no water, it's unbelievable."
You could see a storm with high winds brewing in the sky over Philadelphia.
In Montgomery County, downed trees blocked a road in Bala Cynwyd.
At the storm's height, tens of thousands of customers were without power.
"I truly believe they have to do more trimming, a lot of trees are down. It's a problem," Robert Smith, an Atglen resident, said. "I have a generator, but it takes me quite a while to get a generator. I just got a call from a friend down the road, his generator wouldn't start. It takes me an hour to get mine out."
Nearly 15,000 PECO customers in Philadelphia, Delaware, Chester, Bucks, Montgomery and York Counties were impacted with 333 active outages as of 10:40 p.m. PECO says about 2,000 customers in Chester County are without power.
According to PPL Electric Utilities, 4,762 customers were without power as of 10:40 p.m.
About 100 Atlantic City Electric were still without power and nearly 250 Delmarva Power customers were impacted by the storms as of 10:40 p.m.
People living on Bethel Church Road are patiently waiting for PECO crews to come in and restore the power. No word when that can exactly happen.
CBS3's Chantee Lans contributed to this report.
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