Doylestown Neighborhood Without Power Following Morning Storms
DOYLESTOWN, PA (CBS) -- It was a bang and then lights out for a Doylestown neighborhood after an enormous tree took out power lines, utility poles, and nearly landed on the house across the street from Marie Bushnell.
"This morning I heard a big loud crack and then all the sparks from all the electrical wires," said Doylestown resident Marie Bushnell.
PECO says more than 10,000 customers lost power in the region because of early morning storms. Of the 4000 homes and businesses without power in Bucks County, the majority were in the Doylestown area.
"We lost most of our traffic signals. A good part of Doylestown Township and Doylestown Borough are out of power," said Paul Garr, Doylestown Township Roads Superintendent.
This tree at the corner of North Street and Chapman Avenue happened to fall less than a quarter mile from a PECO substation on Route 313. Tree crews were on standby much of the day while PECO tried to reroute power and make these lines safe.
"Once this power is known to be totally out, we're going to cut this tree up and get it out of the way so they can go replace their telephone poles and such," Garr said.
All the trees near the power lines have been trimmed over the years to prevent limbs from falling down and knocking out the power, but when a whole tree comes down it's a power mess.
Just this week, PECO announced plans for $1.8 million worth of tree trimming in Bucks and Montgomery Counties, including work in Doylestown.
"Oh, I'm glad it didn't fall on their house. Yeah, there's some big trees down there but that's what makes Doylestown so beautiful," Bushnell said.
Bob Kreisich and his daughters, Addison and Abby, wanted to see what was causing their home to lose power.
"Well it doesn't look good," Kreisich said.
So what do you do on a summer day without electricity?
"We're going swimming," one of his daughters said.
