STORM ‘PRETTY SIGNIFICANT’
Crews scramble as thousands lose power throughout the area.
The combination of high winds and frequent lightning had electrical crews scrambling Thursday night and Friday to restore power to thousands of Butler County residents.
Winds were estimated near 50 mph in parts of Butler County, snapping power poles and knocking down power lines, according to weather and electrical company officials.
Sally Thelen, a spokeswoman for Duke Energy, said nearly 2,200 were out of power in Butler County at the height of the storm. She expected all power to be restored by Friday night.
The City of Hamilton Electric Department had about 3,000 without power at times Friday morning, said Patrick Moore, systems engineer.
Thelen called the storm “pretty significant” and the hardest hit area in Butler County was Princeton Road in Fairfield Twp.
Replacing a pole is about an eight-hour job and requires several crew members and trucks, she said. Thelen said the job is more challenging because workers have to follow health guidelines related to the coronavirus pandemic.
Thelen said Duke workers constantly perform vegetation management when they remove tree limbs near power lines. Even when branches are cut away, high winds can push them into power lines, she said.
She said the wind storm showed the “critical nature” of clearing the right of ways.
Moore warned residents to treat every downed power line as if it’s energized.
He described the wind storm as “not our worst, but still up there.”
Here are some of the wind speeds as reported to the National Weather Service in Wilmington:
■ Fairfield, 42 mph
■ Hamilton, 47 mph
■ Hamilton, 47 mph
■ Middletown, 46 mph
■ Middletown Regional Airport, 48 mph
■ Oxford, 52 mph
■ West Chester, 41 mph