If your power is out, it could take up to a week to get it back.
During a news conference on Wednesday, Duquesne Light Vice President of Operations John Hilderbrand II said Tuesday’s storm was one of the most devastating to move through southwestern PA in history.
“It is already clear that this is an unprecedented event in the history of Duquesne Light Company,” said Hilderbrand. “I’ve been in the utility business for 40 years, this is one of the top three events in my 40-year history having worked in the utility business.”
Over 400 outside contractors will be joining local crews to help get power backup by Thursday.
With more storms in the forecast as well, it could take between 5 to 7 days to get power back up for everyone.
About 40 percent of Duquesne Light’s customers experienced an outage at some point.
The entire region is believed to have had around a half a million power outages on Tuesday.
40,000 customers have had power restored with over 200,000 still left.
The problem is the amount of damage done to lines by trees and downed wires, with over 22,000 incidents reported.
The scale of the outage won’t be known until at least Wednesday evening, more likely Thursday morning.
Safety is the number one priority for Duquesne Light and other utility companies at this point.
Downed trees and other hazards are making it difficult for crews to get to lines and make some incidents dangerous to deal with.
The order of restoration is: public safety hazards, public health and safety facilities, major circuits and small neighborhoods or individual homes.
If you're a Duquesne Light customer, you can see outages HERE and FirstEnergy HERE.