Still Without Power? PPL Wants You to Call

PPL Electric Utilities is asking its customers who are still without power to call or use its Internet reporting system to again report their power outages.

The utility can be called toll free at 1-800-DIAL-PPL (1-800-342-5775).

“This will help ensure that we know about all remaining trouble and will help us more accurately set remaining restoration estimates,” the utility says on its Website.

As of this afternoon, PPL is reporting that 23,000 of its customers – out of 350,000 who were initially affected – still do not have electricity. Nearly 2,000 of the remaining affected customers are in the Lehigh Valley, with 229 of those in the Bethlehem area.

For those customers who are still without water or electricity, PPL is providing free water and ice, which can be picked up at the in the Westgate Mall and the , 226 E. Third St.

“As areas are restored, we're redirecting manpower to remaining trouble spots,” the PPL Website says. “Outages are dispatched based on the number of customers affected. Remaining outages are relatively small -- in some cases affecting only a single customer.

We were able to restore more than 90 percent of affected customers to service within 72 hours, but will not rest until we have all customers back in service.

We are working as quickly and safely as possible to restore power. Storm cleanup is expected to take as many as four to five days, depending on the area. 

Based on the number of customers reporting interruptions, Hurricane Irene ranks as the second worst storm to hit our service area in the past 20 years.”