Tuesday night’s storm knocked out power to thousands of homes and businesses across Centre County.
Nearly 24 hours later, hundreds of people in the State College area are still in the dark.
For many, the blackout means no heat on a day when the temperatures are hovering near the freezing mark.
It can also mean no electricity to power stoves and no way to prepare hot meals.
According to Harris Township Manager Amy Farkas, West Penn Power is telling her that 300 homes in Boalsburg have no electric service. The outage began Tuesday evening and as of 1 p.m. Wednesday many of those homes were still in the dark.
West Penn Power is bringing in repair crews from outside our area. Workers in two different West Penn Power trucks told StateCollege.com they arrived in Boalsburg around noontime after making a four hour drive from Butler, Pa. Trucks from Penelec were also seen in the area.
Charles Sanchez lives on Lee Avenue in Boalsburg. Sanchez says he heard a loud bang around 7 p.m. Tuesday and then the lights went out.
Sanchez, who was wearing a turtle neck sweater and a heavy coat says he’s worried about his family. His wife is a diabetic and his son is 10-years-old. Sanchez says his furnace won’t run without electricity. “If the lights don’t come on soon, we’re checking into a motel,” he says. “It’s horrible, horrible.”
West Penn Power spokesperson Tom Kearney says as of 1:30 p.m. about two thousand customers across Centre County still have no power. At the height of Tuesday night’s ice storm there were about 6,000 outages.
“We do have crews working in Boalsburg,” says Kearney. “We should have the bulk of them done this afternoon.” However, Kearney says there are numerous smaller outages scattered across the region. Some of those homes and businesses may not have electricity restored until midnight.
One of those smaller outages is in State College Borough. Public Works Director Mark Whitfield says 56 homes have no power in the area of University Drive and Irvin Avenue. It’s expected that electrical service will be restored to those homes sometime this afternoon.
Jody Lair, the deputy director at the Centre County Emergency Agency says community warming centers have been set up for people who’ve lost power. People can stop in to get warmed up at the Howard Fire Company and the Port Matilda Fire Company. At this point no shelters are available in the State College area, because it appears that power will be restored by the end of the day.
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