x
Breaking News
More () »

Power Problems in the Poconos

PARADISE TOWNSHIP – The lights are on in downtown Stroudsburg and most homes and businesses now have power restored after Wednesday night’s wind gusts knocked p...

PARADISE TOWNSHIP – The lights are on in downtown Stroudsburg and most homes and businesses now have power restored after Wednesday night’s wind gusts knocked power out for thousands.  But earlier in the day, many people were left in the dark.

PPL trucks spent hours near Mount Pocono working to restore power.  Thousands woke up in the dark across Monroe County.

Along Route 940, Tim’s Auto Body’s office is just one place that had the electricity knocked out.

"Now we have no power, trees down, we're using one cell phone, running in the back charging it, making our calls,” said Tim’s Auto Body employee Christine Phelin.

But the shop’s back garage is on a different power line and the lights were on, but most of the work was still on hold.

"It's a nightmare, it really is because we can't really write estimates for customers, because we have no computer, we can't hook up to the back computers because we have no internet,” said Phelin.

PPL contractors say it appears high winds caused the majority of the problems knocking down trees and wires.

"The wind, it's all from the wind. There was no ice or anything on the lines this morning. It's all from the wind,” said Harlan Electric worker Gary Telesk.

While power problems have put some work on hold at Tim's Auto Body, just one door down, the power is on at some restaurants and it's business as usual.

"It went out for a little bit last night, from what I can, because we have a few things that are timer based, there were like two hours off,” said General Manager Susie Eckhart.

None of the food was ruined and Kasa’s Pizza and the adjoining Taco Bell were open for lunch.

Power trickled back to here near Mount Pocono through the day, too.

Walter Transue of Paradise Township says he lost power for about eight hours but had his generator on standby.

"That's just a common thing up here.  They ought to take all the wires underneath the ground. We wouldn't have that problem,” said Transue.

PPL plans to have all power restored to homes and businesses in Monroe County by 11 p.m.

Before You Leave, Check This Out