Crews work to restore power to thousands following strong storms in the Lehigh Valley

UPPER MILFORD TWP., Pennsylvania (WPVI) -- Pennsylvania Power and Light is working to get power back on for thousands of customers following strong storms Wednesday evening into the overnight hours.

The storms brought down trees across PPL's coverage area. Wind gusts reached up to 50 miles per hour causing widespread damage.

Some roads were closed Thursday as trees hung over some streets tangled up in powerlines. Power restoration continued into Thursday evening with help from crews from outside the region.

"Our crews worked all night long and they've restored power to about 35,000 customers since the storm began," said Dana Burns, PPL Director of Communications. "We saw the largest impact in our Lehigh ... and that northeast region of our service territory."

Online data appeared to show Bucks, Lehigh, and Wayne counties were among the hardest-hit areas. Mike Fiore of Upper Milford Township said he lost power Wednesday night.

"We lost power about 9 o'clock last night and since then it's been a little cold. We busted out the generator this morning, got the heat up and running," Fiore said.

Getting the power back on is taking a little longer than expected because strong wind gusts continued throughout the day Thursday causing more outages, according to Burns. However, crews continued to make significant progress.

Around midday Thursday, the number of outages had fallen to approximately 11,000 customers. By 4 p.m., PPL reported approximately 5,000 power outages.

Fiore said he hopes the power is restored soon but the former New Jersey resident said nothing compares to his experience living through Superstorm Sandy.

"That was a lot worse. We went 11 days without power back then," Fiore said.

PPL estimated most customers will have power restored by 11 p.m. Thursday., though some may not be restored until Friday.