DEVELOPING STORY: This article is updated regularly as new data becomes available.
More than 6,500 PPL Electric customers woke up Thursday without power following a round of severe thunderstorms in Schuylkill County the night prior.
Power went out for many in Schuylkill County at about 6 p.m. Wednesday when severe storms passed through the coal region.
At the peak of outages, more than 11,000 PPL residential and business customers in Schuylkill County reported having no electricity. Power has since been restored to a little less than half.
As of 9:30 a.m. Thursday, widespread outages are still being reported in places like Porter Twp., where nearly all customers are without electricity.
Tracie Witter, a spokesperson with PPL, says the utility company is bringing in about 600 extra line workers to help restore power across its entire service area.
More than 200 PPL customers in each of the following municipalities are still without power: Butler Twp., Cressona, East Norwegian Twp., Pottsville, Rush Twp., Schuylkill Twp., South Manheim Twp., West Brunswick Twp., and West Penn Twp.
Many customers in St. Clair are also without electricity as well.
Here’s a look at where outages are being reported as of 9:30 a.m. Thursday:
| Municipality | Outages |
|---|---|
| Ashland | 152 |
| Barry Twp | 6 |
| Butler Twp | 663 |
| Cass Twp | 98 |
| Coaldale | 182 |
| Cressona | 202 |
| East Brunswick Twp | 276 |
| East Norwegian Twp | 536 |
| East Union Twp | 134 |
| Eldred Twp | 1 |
| Hegins Twp | 3 |
| Hubley Twp | 6 |
| Kline Twp | 3 |
| Minersville | 7 |
| Mount Carbon | 57 |
| North Manheim Twp | 167 |
| Norwegian Twp | 3 |
| Pine Grove Twp | 46 |
| Porter Twp | 1276 |
| Pottsville | 290 |
| Reilly Twp | 36 |
| Rush Twp | 761 |
| Ryan Twp | 155 |
| Schuylkill Twp | 253 |
| South Manheim Twp | 234 |
| Tamaqua | 16 |
| Tremont | 8 |
| Union Twp | 112 |
| Walker Twp | 55 |
| Washington Twp | 71 |
| Wayne Twp | 78 |
| West Brunswick Twp | 234 |
| West Penn Twp | 607 |
500 Calls in 4 Hours
Around Schuylkill County, emergency personnel were working into the night dealing with downed trees and wires.
According to Kristopher Fessler with Schuylkill County’s Office of Public Safety, more than 500 calls for assistance – including 9-1-1, non-emergency, and administrative calls – were placed to the 9-1-1 operations center between 5-9 p.m. on Wednesday.
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