Many still without power across the Delaware Valley after stormy one-two punch

IVYLAND, Pa. (WPVI) -- Power restoration efforts continued across the region after powerful storms over the weekend knocked out electricity for thousands of customers, while an ongoing PECO worker strike complicated repair and recovery operations.

PECO's online outage map was offline, but the utility reported that nearly 2,000 customers remained without power as of Monday evening.

Among those affected was Scott Heckler of Warrington Township, whose property sustained damage during the July 4 storm.

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A large tree on his front lawn snapped and fell into a nearby power line. While electricity has since been restored to his home, cleanup work remains.

"I have a friend who actually has wood-burning to heat, and he can use a lot of wood," Heckler said.

Residents across Bucks County said the back-to-back rounds of severe weather created ongoing problems.

In Doylestown, neighbors said a tree leaning on a utility line had remained in place since the first storm, with additional bad weather delaying repairs.

Jeromy Stork, who works at the nearby Castle Valley Mill, said the situation has affected traffic in the area.

Lower State Road has been closed for days because of the damage.

"It took me a half hour to get from Bristol Road to here this morning because I had to go around and get back," Stork said.

The ongoing PECO strike has added challenges to restoration efforts. However, contracted utility crews continued making progress, restoring power to tens of thousands of customers who lost service during Saturday night's storm.

According to the latest figures from PECO, Bucks County had the highest number of remaining outages Sunday evening, with 822 customers without power. Montgomery County followed with 752 customers still offline.

"At the peak of that, we were just over 23,000 electricity customers without power in Bucks. Still a few lingering outages, but they are working through it," said Jim O'Malley, Bucks County's deputy communications director.

PECO officials said most customers are expected to have power restored by midnight, with remaining outages expected to be addressed sometime Tuesday.