REYNOLDSVILLE – Monday evening’s downpour left about 3,000 Penelec customers between Brookville and DuBois without power.
According to Penelec Area Manager John Shimko, the heavy rains and storm caused two separate problems on the main line between Brookville and DuBois. Shortly after 7 p.m. Monday evening a pole broke just north of Ramsaytown. Penelec dispatchers attempted to isolate the problem area using radio-controlled switching. However a second problem on the main line occurred a few minutes later when one of the three phase wires burned open near Rathmel. The remote control switching was then only able to restore two of the three phases, which left about 1000 customers in the dark along with a number of business customers who only had partial power.
Penelec crews were dispatched to the area and patrolled the line. At that time they discovered the broken pole near Ramsaytown and additional crews were called in to make repairs. Penelec then began to patrol the entire line to locate the second problem. The heavy rains and darkness slowed the line patrolling process and inhibited progress in locating the second problem near Rathmel. However, once the problem was identified, crews then made the repairs to the broken phase wire and restored power to all but about 60 customers around 3:40 a.m. Crews then focused on replacing the broken pole near Ramsaytown and completed all repairs at 10:30 Tuesday morning.
Penelec thanks customers for their patience and understanding during restoration efforts and reminds you to treat all downed wires as energized and dangerous. Do not approach or try to move downed wires. Please call 1-888-LIGHTSS (1-888-478-8465) to report downed wires and power outages