PECO: Most Power Outages to Be Restored by Friday Evening

More than 250,000 customers were with out power at the height of last night's storm. Local contractors and workers from other states are helping in the effort.

After last night’s stormy weather, PECO is working hard to restore power to some 140,000 houses and businesses throughout the area.

The biggest power losses occurred in Chester County — where 52,022 customers were affected — and Delaware County, with a whopping 69,881 outages, according to a PECO outage map updated as of 12:23 p.m. Those numbers represent 24%-29% of the homes in those counties.

According to a PECO representative, during the height of last night’s storm, more than 250,000 customers were without power. Now that number is steadily decreasing as PECO works with around 200 local contractors and over 500 field personnel from Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia and New York — all in addition to PECO’s own crews — to restore power to the area, the representative said.

The rep also said that the majority of outages are expected to be restored by Friday evening. As for the ones that aren’t, restoration efforts will depend on necessary repairs and other factors.

NBC Philadelphia reports that as of noon, around 170,000 customers of Atlantic City Electric were without power, and that the company is unsure when power will be fully restored. More people lost power in last night’s storm, NBC said, than during Hurricane Sandy, though the overall damage from last night is much less severe. The report also includes a list of outage numbers from different power suppliers across the Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey regions.

PECO serves close to a million and a half people in and around Philadelphia. The company has a 24-7 emergency helpline that can be reached at 1-800-841-4141.

PECO might also have to help out Billy Penn up on top of City Hill. He appears to have been struck by lightning in the storm as well.

Follow @MaxGRettig on Twitter.