Storm damage, without a twister

Thousands of homes and businesses in the region were without power this morning, because of damaging thunderstorms that began last evening.

As trees and power lines were toppled throughout the region during the night, funnel cloud sightings were reported from northern Bucks County into central New Jersey, but no tornados were confirmed, said Valerie Meola, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Mount Holly.

Hail an inch or more in diameter was reported in Reading and parts of the Lehigh Valley, according to meteorologist Dean Iovino of the National Weather Service's Mount Holly Office.

Four men were injured, one fatally, by a lightning strike, in Newark, N.J. last night.

This morning, because of a large tree that fell across Ridge Avenue in the city's Andorra section, the roadway was closed at the Henry Avenue split for a time.

"The race is on to complete all the restoration work before another round of storms later today," said PECO spokesman Michael Wood.

Today's forecast isn't as threatening, though, said Iovino. Yesterday's storms were more severe because a front was starting to move through, he explained.

About 3,000 PECO customers were still without electricity early this morning, virtually all of them in Chester County, said Wood. The work was widely scattered, from north of Phoenixville to west of Kennett Square.

"We have about 40 events still to clean up."

At the peak of the troubles, about 32,000 PECO customers in Chester County were in the dark, as well as 6,000 more in Delaware, Montgomery and Bucks Counties.

Thousands of homes and businesses in northern Bucks County also lost power, according to reports.

That area, however, is served by two other power companies, PPL and Metropolitan Edison, Wood explained.

Hundreds of Bucks customers, especially near the town of Upper Black Eddy, were still without power as of 7:30 this morning, according to Met-Ed's online outage map (www.firstenergycorp.com/outages/opco-outages.jsp).

That's right in the middle of the path of one funnel cloud, which traveled from Ferndale in Bucks County to the Frenchtown area on the New Jersey side of the Delaware River, according to Iovino.

Radar confirmed the cloud was rotating, but after investigating, the weather service concluded the damage was the work of straight-line winds, Meola said.

Tornados are unusual events in the region, with some years having no confirmed cases, others two or three, Iovino said.

Thunderstorms are possible every day for the next week.

"It's just a pattern we're stuck in, kind of like a broken record," he said.

The isolated storms of the next several days aren't likely to be as damaging as yesterday's storms, he said.

But Thursday or Friday, another front should be coming through, creating the potential for more powerful weather.

For more on the forecast, go to http://go.philly.com/weather.

Contact staff writer Peter Mucha at 215-854-4342 or pmucha@phillynews.com.