State of Emergency

I got an inkling that yesterday was not a normal day in Delaware County on my initial jaunt to our local Wawa at mid-morning.

Normally both sides of Cottonwood Lane, the tiny street that runs between the railroad tracks and the Wawa and leads back to our plant in Primos, are jammed with cars. They are commuters who know they need to get there early if they're going to get a spot before they scramble to catch their train at the Primos Station on the Media-Elwyn line.

The trains weren't running yesterday.

They had lots of company.

State of Emergency.

That pretty much sums up what life was like for many Delco residents yesterday.

That's especially true out in the western end of the county, where the full force of Mother Nature hit with a vengeance Tuesday night. How bad was it? Route 1 southbound is still closed this morning because of a string of downed trees in Concord.

Middletown and Brookhaven were slammed by the storm.

County officials gathered in Brookhaven last night to offer a final update on the storm.

There was a shelter set up there.

Here are a few updates:

The Philadelphia Union today will open PPL Park as a shelter at 11 a.m. Residents can shower, cool off and the team will provide food and water.

PECO this morning is saying that outages across the region have dipped below 50,000 for the first time, with 49,245 still in the dark. Last night there were still 50,000 residents in Delco without power. This morning that number has dipped to 24,000. PECO is warning that some customers may be without power until the weekend.

In addition to PPL Park, two other shelters are operating in the county, at Academy Park High School and Brookhaven Borough Hall. A couple of key closed roads are now open: Route 291 in Tinicum, and Waterville Road in Brookhaven. However, Route 1 southbound out in Concord remains closed this morning.

The Media-Elwyn line reopened at 5:30 a.m. in time for the morning rush.

If you are still without power, we'd like to talk to you and tell your story.

Contact me at editor@delcotimes.com

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