Peco restores power to all but 2,000 homes

Heavy winds that gusted through the area Sunday knocked out power for about 20,000 Peco customers for a time, according to a utility spokeswoman.

By 7 p.m., Peco crews had restored service to the majority of households without power, though 2,000 homes were still without service.

About 2,600 Pennsylvania Power & Light customers were also affected by the heavy winds.

Peco's Cathy Engel Menendez said those affected were scattered throughout the utility's service area, which covers Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery Counties and part of York County.

"The storm started to intensify with significant winds around 10 a.m.," Menendez said. She noted the forecast called for high winds through Sunday evening, but she said Peco, which sent out extra crews, hoped to restore all service Sunday night.

Airline flights to Philadelphia were delayed an average of 82 minutes Sunday morning after the Federal Aviation Administration ordered them grounded because of the windstorm.

Mary Flannery, spokeswoman for Philadelphia International Airport, said there was no count of the number of delayed flights before the FAA lifted its ground-stop order about 1:30 p.m.

Arriving flights were also delayed, Flannery said, because the FAA had ordered controllers to stagger planes approaching the airport because of the high winds.

"The FAA is not reporting any delays outbound" from Philadelphia, she said.

PP&L reported on its website shortly after 3 p.m. that 2,599 customers had lost power on Sunday from Wayne County in the north to Lancaster County in the south to Cumberland County in the west.

In the Philadelphia region, that included 662 customers in Bucks County and 73 in Montgomery County.

- Walter F. Naedele