Thousands without power in wake of destructive storms from Ida
PHILADELPHIA - Thousands are left without power after a massive and powerful storm system that once made up Hurricane Ida barrelled over the Delaware Valley on Wednesday leaving behind a wake of devastation.
Energy company PECO, which serves Philadelphia and most of its neighboring counties, reported over 54,000 outages on Thursday morning. According to the company's outage map, customers in Montgomery County and areas north of Philadelphia were the hardest hit by the most affected.
PPL, an energy provider that mainly serves the Lehigh Valley, reported over 4,000 outages on Thursday morning. The outages also stretched down into Lancaster County and areas near Pennsylvania's capitol.
Meanwhile, in New Jersey, PSE&G whittled down its number of outages to below 1,000 following the wrath of powerful storms that caused flooding and spawned tornadoes.
LOCAL STORM DAMAGE HEADLINES
- School districts announce closures and delays Thursday following flooding, damage
- Ida storm damage: 'Large and extremely dangerous' tornadoes reported throughout region
- New York City subway flooding: Deluge halts trains, pours into stations
- DEADLY FLOODING: Bodies pulled, others rescued in NYC, NJ storm waters
The large system of damaging weather first pushed into the Delaware Valley on Wednesday afternoon, with drenching downpours that caused streets to flood and rivers and creeks to overflow. By the time the downpours ended, some areas saw 9 inches of rainfall.
Flooding was just one cause of devastation in the Delaware Valley as "large and extremely dangerous" tornadoes ripped through parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Perhaps the most destructive twister tore through a neighborhood in Mullica Hill, Gloucester County leaving several homes completely destroyed.
While the storms have moved out of the area, forecasters warn that the flooding waters might not begin to recceed until the weekend.
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