Much of Southampton Still in the Dark Thursday

A handful of residents and businesses in Southampton had their power restored early Thursday morning; however, many readers from neighborhoods all across town still report being in the dark.

PECO reports that these customers are among approximately 119,000 customers in Bucks County who are still without power.

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According to a statement released Thursday morning, PECO expects to be able to restore service to approximately 80-90 percent of customers impacted by the storm by Friday night.  Service for most of the remaining customers should be restored during the weekend.  Some customers, in the most damaged and isolated areas may be without electric service until next week.  

Spokesperson Martha Phan said PECO believes sharing information is important, as it allows people to make plan accordingly. She said to this end the company has been very forthcoming with information through the restoration process. 

“We have provided restoration estimates to customers when we could,” she said. “Those estimates sometimes change as information comes back to us from the field.”

Phan said PECO empathizes with those who are still without power, and the company has been working around the clock to remedy the problem.

“We know it is frustrating, especially when people can possibly look across the street and see a neighbor who has power,” she said. “Different customers are on different circuits.”

According to Phan, PECO prioritizes where to begin work for restoration service based where will have the greatest impact.

“We work on the circuits that will put the largest number of people back on first,” she said.  “As information comes back to us from the field, we update the estimates. It’s a constantly evolving process.”

Phan could not offer Southampton-specific information at the time of the interview, but did say that Hurricane Sandy now ranks as the most damaging storm in PECO history – interrupting electric service to more than 850,000 customers. 

“We live and work in the communities we service,” she said. “Be assured we are working tirelessly to resolve the issues.”