77% Without Power in Horsham

As of 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, 77 percent of Horsham's 10,800 PECO customers were without power, according to Township Manager Bill Walker.

Walker said he did not know when power restored and PECO representatives said prior to Hurricane Sandy striking to expect power outages of at least several days.

PECO Spokeswoman Liz Williams told Patch that power restorations could take up to a week to complete. As of Tuesday afternoon, she said 170,000 Montgomery County residents were without power. PECO's outage breakdown shows that between 1,501-3,500 of the company's 3,800 Hatboro customers are also without power. Williams said she could not pinpoint specific numbers for either municipality.

"Hurricane Sandy is causing wide-spread damage along the East Coast and locally caused power interruptions to more than 850,000 PECO customers – making Sandy the most damaging storm in company history," Williams said. "More than 3,000 employees and contractors are working around-the-clock to repair this unprecedented damage and restore service to customers."

As of 1 p.m. Tuesday, Williams said crews had safely restored service to more than 300,000 customers. 

In Horsham, Walker said much of the outages were caused by uprooting of trees throughout the township, Walker said. At least nine trees fell on township homes and approximately 30 fell onto roadways. Many of those, Walker said, had electrical wires, making removal a job for PECO as opposed to the township public works department, who like Walker and emergency personnel, worked day and night to stay on top of the storm.

"At the end of the day, there were no injuries, no deaths, just cleanup," said Walker, who, after 45 minutes of sleep last night reported to work Tuesday. 

Four Horsham residents stayed briefly at the Horsham Township Community Center Monday night, Walker said, adding that they later relocated elsewhere. Emergency crews did not have to evacuate anyone, or carry out water rescues, he said.

As was the case following Hurricane Irene, Walker said township residents should notify Horsham of property damage resulting from downed trees, or other storm-related issues. In order to be considered for FEMA or PEMA cleanup funding, Walker said the township has to document relevant damage. 

For the time being, anyone needing to reach the township should call the police non-emergency number at 215-643-8284 as the township's phone and email is down.

During a two-hour drive Tuesday morning, Walker said he saw "lots of trees down on private property," but said it was "very nice to see neighbors helping neighbors" with cleanup.

The township's parks and recreation department is still surveying its nearly 50 parks to determine damage to the nearly 900 acres of township property, Walker said.