Heavy rain and strong winds swept through parts of Montgomery County on Wednesday evening, toppling trees and power lines as a fast-moving storm rolled through the Philadelphia region around rush hour. The system brought lightning, gusting winds and reports of pebble-sized hail in places including Malvern in Chester County and Wilmington, Delaware.
PECO said about 37,000 customers were without electricity at the height of the storm, a number that fell to around 2,000 by Thursday afternoon as crews worked through scattered outages. In Pottstown, a tree fell onto a home on Mervine Street, while another tree ignited after coming down on power lines along Waterloo Road in Berwyn.
In Lower Pottsgrove Township, Anne Gorski stepped outside Thursday morning and found a large tree down in her yard, along with a utility pole and power lines dragged to the ground. “Came outside afterwards and saw this lovely destruction of trees,” she said. “Driving around, we had to pick up a generator last night because we anticipate a couple days of this.”
Andrew Quintois, who lives in the region, said the storm left debris scattered block after block. “Every block, there’s gigantic trees down,” he said. “My wife and I both work from home, so we have to figure out how to get online.”
The damage fit a familiar pattern for the region after a stretch of hot weather. Matt Rankin said that heat can set the stage for sudden thunderstorms at the end of a stretch like this, and he urged people to steer clear of any damaged equipment. “Stay away from downed power lines or equipment that’s damaged. If they see it, they should assume that it’s energized and therefore dangerous,” he said.
Cleanup was underway Thursday after the storm caused widespread damage across the area, but the scene in towns hit hardest was still one of broken limbs, blocked yards and homes trying to get power back. The storm eased by Thursday afternoon, and the remaining outages showed the same thing the damage did: the worst of it had passed, but the recovery was still in progress.
