Some fireworks canceled ahead of expected storms
Threats of rain are disrupting some Philadelphia-area Independence Day events.
A number of towns have canceled fireworks displays in advance of showers and thunderstorms forecasted to move through the region this evening.
In South Jersey, fireworks scheduled for tonight in Medford, Haddonfield Borough, Washington Township and Bordentown Township, as well as at the Valenzano Winery, have all been canceled due to expected poor weather conditions.
In southeastern Pennsylvania, tonight's fireworks in Lower Providence Township, Ambler and Conshohocken are also canceled.
Some have been rescheduled for future dates.
Fireworks in Bordentown Township and from the Kiwanis Club of Ambler will now go off on Saturday, and Haddonfield's fireworks will take place Sunday. Conshohocken's fireworks are now set for July 12. Washington Township's celebration has been rescheduled for July 13, and Medford's has been postponed until July 19. Valenzano Winery's fireworks are tentatively rescheduled for Sept. 19.
A few Friday fireworks shows are being rescheduled as well.
Those include Ocean City, which is moving its display to Saturday, and Atlantic City, which is postponing its fireworks show until Sunday.
Additionally, tonight's free Philly POPS! concert has been moved from outside Independence Hall to an indoor venue, the Kimmel Center.
Hurricane Arthur -- the first named storm of the season, which officially became a hurricane early this morning -- appears likely to cause problems for Independence Day festivities along the East Coast.
The National Weather Service has issued a flash flood watch for the region in effect from 8 a.m. through Friday morning and periods of heavy rain showers are likely.
Forecasters say to expect one to three inches of rain. Flooding is expected along streams, creeks and roads with poor drainage.
The showers are expected to end by early Friday evening.
The rain comes after heavy thunderstorms Wednesday night knocked out electricity for thousands of people across the Philadelphia region. Some outages persisted into this morning.
As of late morning, utilities were reporting that about 1,600 customers in the Philadelphia region lacked power, an uptick from the about 450 without power early this morning, but a steep drop from the 12,000-plus customers affected as storms were sweeping through the area Wednesday night.
At about 11:15 a.m., Peco's outage map showed 297 customers without power in Montgomery County, 231 in Chester County, 230 in Bucks County, 69 in Philadelphia and 37 in Delaware County.
PSE&G was reporting 807 outages in Burlington County, fewer than five in Camden County and none in Gloucester County.
Dispatchers this morning reported little major damage from the overnight storms, though a home on Raven Hollow Drive in Montgomery Township was badly damaged by fire after it was struck by lightning.
Initial reports indicated other buildings in the region may also have sustained lightning strikes, though dispatchers had no confirmed information this morning.