BETHLEHEM, Pa. - A strong thunderstorm that swept through the region Thursday morning brought heavy downpours and knocked out power to thousands.
More than 28,000 electricity customers were without power at 9 a.m. in Lehigh and Northampton counties, according to PPL and Met-Ed.
PPL reported just over 22,000 without power in Lehigh and Northampton counties. Met-Ed reported more than 5,700 in the dark, mainly in the northern reaches of Northampton County.
The storm packed heavy wind gusts, rain and hail in some spots. It ended almost as suddenly as it began and came amid a severe thunderstorm warning by the National Weather Service.
In Northampton County, about 10,500 PPL customers lost power. Bethlehem and Bethlehem Township were hardest hit. Bethlehem had about 4,700 customers in the dark and Bethlehem Township, 3,600, according to PPL. Another 1,000 were without power in Hanover Township.
Met-Ed said the bulk of its outages were in the Bangor area (2,800), Bushkill Township (2,500) and Bath (1,400)
PPL was reporting almost 12,000 without power in Lehigh County, with the Allentown area taking the brunt of it, according to reported outages.
About 6,200 customers were without power in South Whitehall Township, while Allentown had about 2,100 customers without power. Whitehall Township (2,200) and North Whitehall Township (1,000) also were affected.
PPL advises their consumers to report outages by calling 800-342-5775; texting “outage” to 898775, or by going to pplelectric.com/outage.
Met-Ed says customers can report outages by calling 888-544-4877.
