Power outage due to downed line
TOWAMENCIN — Several neighborhoods in Towamencin Township were without power Thursday after a high transmission line dropped onto another power line behind a home on the 1000 block of Pross Road.
“The cross arm broke, and the top line came down onto the lower line and caused a back feed through the line. It also burned up the pole, which we’re going to have to replace,” said a PECO employee on the scene.
The incident took place around 11 a.m. and caused power to drop for 141 Towamencin residents, generally south of Allentown Road, west of Valley Forge Road and east of Troxel Road. PECO crews could be seen on Pross Road and in the surrounding neighborhood checking houses for damage, and crews at the scene reported no injuries and minimal damage beyond the one pole, but urged residents to check their power strips once electricity is restored for possible damage caused by the power surge.
PECO Senior Manager of Communications Cathy Engel Menendez said Thursday the cross arm break led to a higher voltage line coming into contact with a lower voltage line, causing a power surge throughout the neighborhood.
“We are on site making repairs, and we also do need to individually visit each of those 141 homes to make sure that there’s no additional damage” before power can be turned back on, she said, a process which could run until early evening.
Neighbors on nearby Woodlawn Drive reported they had initially called the Towamencin Volunteer Fire Company after smelling smoke and said the nearby Schwenckfeld Manor community and Inglewood Elementary School had lost power due to the outage.
Firefighters on the scene said fire was limited to the pole from which the power line dropped.
Police Chief Tim Dickinson said Thursday that power was also lost at the Towamencin Community Pool on Weikel Road and at two traffic signals, at Allentown and Woodlawn and at Main Street and Oak Boulevard.
Anyone who has experienced a power outage is asked to contact PECO at (800) 841-4141 to report any damage to their property, and those with damage they believe was caused by the power surge can contact the utility at that same number. As of 6 p.m. Thursday, PECO reported roughly 100 residents were still affected by power out- ages, out of roughly 7,600 in the township served by the utility.
PECO spokeswoman Romona Riscoe Benson said at 6 p.m. the utility showed roughly 500 customers without power at the peak of the outage, and the company was “slowly energizing all of the customers that are without power now — we will be restoring power as quickly and safely as possible.”