Above, the driver of a vehicle backs up along Station Avenue in Spring Valley, where a fallen tree and sign blocked the roadway at Spring Valley Road. Numerous trees and wires were brought down by winds gusting over 50 mph Friday afternoon, as a powerful storm pushed through the area. In its wake, bitter Arctic air has moved in for the holiday weekend.
In the wake of a powerful storm that moved through eastern Pennsylvania Thursday and Friday, fierce winds gusting in excess of 50 mph have brought down trees and wires, cutting power to hundreds of area households on the eve of Christmas eve.
According to PPL’s Outage Center map, as of late Friday afternoon approximately 200 Lower Saucon Township customers were without power. Most of the outages were concentrated in three areas: along Springtown Hill Road between Hill Drive and the Bucks County line; along Wassergass Road between Petran Lane and Longridge Drive; and along Lower Saucon Road between Crestline Drive and Pond Lane.
All of the outages are weather-related, and PPL is estimating that power will be restored in those neighborhoods by 3 p.m. Saturday.
In upper Bucks County roughly 60 PPL customers in Springtown were without power as of 5 p.m. Friday, and in southern Lehigh County nearly 400 households were in the dark in areas along Limeport Pike and Chestnut Hill Road in Upper Saucon Township. PPL was estimating that Springtown customers would have their lights back on by 6 p.m., while the outage in Upper Saucon had an estimated repair time of 3 p.m. Saturday.
Power outages can be reported to PPL online. According to PPL’s Outage Center map, at around 5 p.m. roughly 35,000 customers were without electricity in eastern Pennsylvania.
In the village of Spring Valley along the Upper Saucon-Lower Saucon line a tree that had toppled onto Station Avenue at Spring Valley Road closed part of the intersection.
Flares were lit in the road next to the down tree and a sign that was also knocked over, just feet from the nearby Spring Valley Inn.
Other local roads that were littered with pieces of fallen trees, down wires and other debris included Reading Drive and Lower Saucon Road in Lower Saucon Township.
Above, chunks of wood and a snapped wire litter Lower Saucon Road north of Wassergass Road in Lower Saucon Township Friday afternoon. The branches and wires that fell were brought down by fierce winds that accompanied a departing storm.
A wind advisory is in effect for upper Bucks, Northampton and Lehigh counties through 7 p.m. Friday evening, when the National Weather Service said winds of 30 to 40 mph with higher gusts would begin to die down.
“Gusty winds could blow around unsecured objects,” the NWS’s advisory statement said. “Tree limbs could be blown down and power outages may result.”
The area is also under a wind chill advisory for wind chills as low as 20 below zero through 1 p.m. Saturday.
Friday night’s low in Allentown is forecast to be 5 degrees, and Saturday’s high is only going to be in the mid teens, according to the latest NWS forecast for the Lehigh Valley.
The forecast for Christmas Day is for sunny skies with a low of 10 and a high of 25 degrees.
Above, broken tree branches litter a section of Reading Drive near the Saucon Creek in Lower Saucon Township Friday.