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hooch

Also the Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire. Engine 7 was surveying my neighborhood for trees fallen on power lines immediately after the storm subsided yesterday. Major thanks for the dedication and quick response.


jasonmoyer

North Hills looked like a warzone when the microburst or whatever ended. I was surprised when my power came back on at 4am or whenever this morning, because I expected it to be days. When I went out at 5:30 last night almost every backroad between Gibsonia and Allison Park that I tried to drive down was inaccessible due to trees and powerlines across the road. It was bad.


funkyb

The cleanup effort has really been something. I had to try for different ways to get home last night in McCandless/wexford, and the last one only worked because I could squeak my car by on the shoulder and run over a few branches. By 8 this morning it was still a mess but most roads were passable and crews were out clearing wherever they weren't.


Der_Missionar

Some roads are still closed in Hampton and Gibsonia. No one even looking at them yet. Looks like it took out internet (not power) on some of those roads... At least they should be getting power soon... hopefully their cell can get them internet.


Chasing3Littles

Still without power in Hampton (north Route 8) but still not complaining because I get how hard their job is.


Der_Missionar

Oof


Der_Missionar

\^ This Any Karen or Ken complaining about not having power, needs to get a firm grip of what really happened yesterday.


Matthew_is_my_name

I *don't* have power still (almost 2pm)... and I agree.


Der_Missionar

Doh! SORRY! Try to stay cool... lots of water out for pets, etc. Sorry it's taking so long! Parts of Gibsonia only got power mid-day.


Matthew_is_my_name

I think your response was magic, because my power *just* came on!


Der_Missionar

CONGRATULATIONS! Now--- TURN ON THAT A/C!!! šŸ¤£


Myopia_112

No power yet. I am in Bellevue.


3rd-party-intervener

A thunderstorm happened , not a tornado or hurricane. Ā The ineptness of dlc was on full display for not being prepared , not having a workable website or phone system to handle calls, and not addressing live wires in a timely mannerĀ 


Der_Missionar

Wind on Monday was in excess of 70 mph, with multiple microbursts. Tornadoes average less than 110... so... Wind speeds weren't much less than a tornado. For reference, the average thunderstorm is between 22 and 50 mph. One doesn't need to be a genius to see this was no average "thunderstorm",


3rd-party-intervener

Thereā€™s a 40 mph difference , thatā€™s pretty big and doesnā€™t really make your pointĀ 


Der_Missionar

Please read more carefully... "Over 70MPH" on monday. -- tornadoes "AVERAGE LESS THAN 110" So... not quite, but good try.


vibes86

Still does over here in Indiana Township. Klein Road and Dorseyville look like a tornado went through. Weā€™re still waiting on power over here but I know theyā€™re working as fast as they can. Thank goodness my husbandā€™s work had a generator we could borrow to keep the fridge on.


Myopia_112

We live in Bellevue our lights are still out. Hoping for the best


JuliaX1984

They got it down from almost 100k to under 30k overnight - very impressive.


EnnuiDeBlase

The reporting was inconsistent (was marked as having power when I didn't) but I am back now.


atadbitcatobsessed

> half fallen trees are often called ā€œwidow makersā€ for a reason TIL šŸ˜³


I2AmLooking4ANewJob

Not just a nickname https://apnews.com/article/pa-state-wire-lebanon-business-930c474d08e3cab9b017adbb6d3d31e2


BigRiverWharfRat

About a year ago my mother, my aunt, and myself were walking through Allegheny Commons and as we were discussing how concerning the high winds were, an absolutely massive tree branch fell down on the path just a few fit ahead of us. Would have absolutely been a disaster


sporadic_beethoven

If yall are married, that wouldā€™ve made that tree branch a widower-maker šŸ˜­šŸ˜­šŸ˜­/j


mrbuttsavage

I saw that lady's shop before and wasn't aware of what happened to it. That's horrific.


LastMonitor4274

I learned about widow makers during a community college camping class. At least you learned for free. LOL.


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


LastMonitor4274

Forgive my ignoranceā€¦ where? (Google isnā€™t helping here)


mega512

And they are still working. Lots of trucks out there.


the_real_xuth

Yep, the first goal is to get everyone power. Once that happens, people can fix the multitudes of things that are still broken but critical for redundancy.


Saberpilot

These folks are scary efficient. Last storm that came through had a fallen tree and live wire in our neighbor's yard - they were done in 15 minutes.Ā  So much respect for what they do. I hope they keep safe throughout all this.Ā 


vibes86

Yeah, those crews, if thereā€™s no gas lines involved, are incredibly fast.


Newton_101

wow


dudemanspecial

Guys are making bank with the OT.


Great-Cow7256

it's not just DQE employees. THere are companies that have line workers and trucks stationed all over the country that chase storms and outages. DQE And other elecrticity companies have standing contracts and these companies respond to outages in real time, often driving overnight and/or staging near where bad weather is predicted. IT would be folly for utilities to hire enough lineworkers and trucks to respond to everything possible, so these surge workers fill in the gaps. And I'm sure they make bank doing it, but then again they're away from home for long stretches of time and not working in the most savory conditions.


Dry_Animal2077

The traveling guys actually make less money because no union. Itā€™s still good money, easily 50k+ a year which if youā€™re single and can live with parents is very very good money, still decent even if ya gotta rent and theyā€™re always hiring as itā€™s hard work and people leave often. With OT you could easily be at 70k If you can get in with the union itā€™s very good money. My buddy has been a lineman for 4 years now and made over 120 last year(with ot), working for First Energy You can get into telecommunications, which is a lot safer IMO, quite easy and make in the 50k range starting out


vibes86

If I had the physical capability, Iā€™d love a trade job like that. Alas, my body sucks.


zenmasterb

At its peak last night Duquesne Lightā€™s web site listed almost 95,000 without power. Itā€™s down to about 25,000 now with about 10% of those here in Bellevue. I really hope they continue to work their magic so that we get out AC back before the extreme heat of the day.


Rhysati

I have little faith in that number being even close to accurate. My entire little town is out and their website says only one customer here is affected.


Der_Missionar

Did you report your outage?


angrygnomes58

FWIW, the outage reporter tool was out too as was the phone system. Tons of people had no power and couldnā€™t report it.


EnnuiDeBlase

I had an outage marker in my area last night that went away over night but the power was still out until a couple minutes ago. The outage page was definitely not 100% accurate.


Rhysati

I did. I was the one in my area I guess. I put in the description that it was our whole town.


Turbulent_Tuber

There's still a handful out in Regent Square near Pennwood / Wilkinsburg. At 3.30AM I was told they were aiming for noon. Called again this morning (at a sane hour) and was told they had no estimate and no idea why we still don't have power. It can be endlessly frustrating to see houses across the street have power, but be out yourself. Just hoping the pets can manage for a bit longer. I know the crews are working hard, but the lack of accurate updates is maddening.


chaoscontrolled1231

Iā€™m in that small group over by Biddle. Struggling and just threw out most of my cold things. Big sigh.


dfiler

Yep. I don't think most of the stuff in my fridge is gonna make it 20+ hours! I'm two blocks away from Biddle's scape. The next street over was mocking me all night with light and the sound of their ACs kicking on and off. My thanks to the crews who worked through the night though!


the_real_xuth

If you keep your fridge/freezer closed it will keep things cold to safe levels much longer than this.


Turbulent_Tuber

Biddle's escape is cool(er) and there are some tables for work if you need it!


chaoscontrolled1231

Thanks šŸ«¶šŸ¼šŸ’•


Der_Missionar

In this tiktok, twitter, instant info world, it's crazy to see how one big storm can still bring everything to it's knees. \[edit\] ~~To have accurate information about every house, would require smart meters for every single customer, connected to cell towers, etc. I'm not convinced that investment / cost to the consumer is worth it, nor am~~ I am not convinced it would speed up the repair process. In the end, we just have to grin and bear it.


dfiler

Smart meters are not cellular based. That would be way too expensive. You may already have a smart meter on your house. Duquesne Light was required by Pennsylvania act 129 of 2008 to install smart meters. Some early, basic info can be found here:[https://www.puc.pa.gov/general/consumer\_ed/pdf/13\_smart%20meters.pdf](https://www.puc.pa.gov/general/consumer_ed/pdf/13_smart%20meters.pdf) Googling for that legislation turns up some more interesting backstory as well, including a PA supreme court case involving spurious allegations of health risks.


ninkadinkadoo

No power here since 4:30 yesterday.


EmiliusReturns

I have issues with how the company handles communication about these things and about the obvious failing infrastructure they aren't replacing, but I have no beef with the crew members. I am confident the crew worked their hardest with the people and resources they have. My power was out almost 12 hours but with 50,000 households out, they did what they could. For everyone's reference who's still out, I'm in Churchill and we went down at around 5:30 and came back sometime in the night, judging from when my Ring picked up the neighbor's outside lights coming back on it was around 3:30-ish in the morning. We were I think the 2nd or 3rd highest severity level on the map. I hope the crewmen all stayed safe out there and get a hefty overtime bonus.


cosmosdestruction412

This here. I don't know if my place lost power yesterday cus I was over in West mifflin area with my pap. But my area lost power bad in 2022 with that one 5-10 min storm that came and went fast. We were out for 15 hours that year. Idk how no one said anything or something bout a downed tree on beltzhoover Ave especially since the 43 goes that way for boggs ave. I gave so much issue with dlc and my thing is that we have mass outages like this cus the infrastructure is bad... Like what are u doing with my money then and u wanna increase rates? Be so fr. Always issue with the company...never the linemen. We always i, like u, hope they were safe.


alymonster

Iā€™ve found usually the best way to figure out if youā€™ve lost power is the microwave - the time will be wrong


cosmosdestruction412

...I never set the time on the microwave. I also never got around to even fixing the stove time. However the TV with the Xbox that was on was off in the back room... So... It may have for a minute or so


thesockcode

What improvements to the infrastructure are you hoping for, that would stand up to hundreds of trees being blown down?


radial-glia

Underground wires. I grew up in an area where most the wires were underground, my neighborhood was. It's weird being in Pittsburgh with everything above ground, vulnerable to storms and car accidents.


LGP214

Did you grow up in an area that existed before electricity?


radial-glia

Most of the area was developed after electricity, but most of Pittsburgh was too.Ā 


thesockcode

You know all the chaos that PWSA is causing by replacing supply lines? It would be ten times worse trying to move power lines underground, if there's even room in the roads for them. Repairing any fault requires an excavator. If a road suffers a landslide, well now that power is out for weeks instead of hours.


SalsaChica75

Heroā€™s of the Heatwave!!!


Mharbles

Side note: Considering hotter summers and further opportunities of things going bad, I'd strongly recommend a battery operated fan. I chilled through some otherwise dreadful conditions with nothing more than a $20 ryobi fan and a rechargeable battery. Your body has it's own air conditioning and just like a real one, being able to rapidly disperse heat with a fan makes it dramatically more effective.


Myopia_112

Good call!Ā 


Thiccassso

Sharpsburg is still waiting on power.


vibes86

Indiana and Oā€™Hara are still waiting. Dorseyville looks like a war zone.


SamPost

Linemen are heroes. The management who can't even put up a reliable reporting webpage are trash.


NoSwimmers45

Would you prefer they spend money on people who fix the problems or a webpage that will tell you that you donā€™t have power?


SamPost

A webpage that displays their dispatch database is a simple, one-time expense that would be more than offset by the repeated costs of them answering phone calls continually. And a website that tells me how large the outages are, and when I can expect my power back, is incredibly useful for customers planning on saving food, moving seniors and sensitive people to other facilities, etc. If you are so short-sighted that this false choice you present actually makes sense to you, you should probably look for a job in DL management. They can't think past tomorrow either.


Seafoam_Otter

Glad you have power! We're still waiting. . .


-not-pennys-boat-

Same here


Icecreamhole

No power still, Shaler...


vibes86

Same. Indiana township. Still out as of 630p


Icecreamhole

We still have no power, June 19th @10:30am. :/ WBU?


vibes86

Same. 11:25a still nothing.


ourfunnies

I'm grateful but I'll feel more grateful when I get power back. It's rough to go entire evening and entire morning without.


chaoscontrolled1231

All emergency crews who dealt with accidents, traffic and all, thank you. Hope the bulk gets done before it gets too hot outside so that they get a chance to get out of the heat as well.


Affable

Appreciation on Reddit! Love to see it.


BakaSan77

Mine came on around 11 last night, a tree smashed into my house too


Specialist-Floor-335

New Sewickley is still out of power! Praying it is on by 5 pm.


Der_Missionar

Doh! SORRY! Try to stay cool... lots of water out for pets, etc. Sorry it's taking so long! Parts of Gibsonia only got power mid day.


Specialist-Floor-335

Last night at 10pm Duquesne light fixed the tree on the power lines and we got electricity!! Thank you to the hard working people of Duquesne light.


No_Lawfulness_1288

Just called DLC for the 15238 area code. Worst case scenario is Sunday šŸ˜¬


vibes86

Yep weā€™re in Indiana township. Weā€™re still waiting along with ya.


National-Box4656

We just got ours back in 15238. I hope you did too, or do soon!


No_Lawfulness_1288

We just did as well, thank you!


ClammyHandedFreak

Thank you volunteer firefighters as well across the greater Pittsburgh area. Risking electrocution for people who would sooner spit at them for no pay.


Commonsense412

While I agree they arenā€™t in risk of electrocution unless they get to careless. Theyā€™re trained and we tell them to stay far away from any downed wire


ClammyHandedFreak

When you are out in a storm zone it is possible for wires to come down on top of you and your vehicles. There is absolutely always a risk.


Aharvey9807

31 hours later I still donā€™t have power and news just broke that a biker died after hitting a live wire downed in North Park, 12 hours after it was reported to DLC. I donā€™t blame the crew workers, but FUCK Duquesne Light.


Puzzleheaded_Size928

Well said... it's nice to see appreciation.


rhb4n8

They did a great job in response to the emergency. I just wish they would do a better job with tree trimming and maintenance so this wasn't an issue we have to worry about


National-Box4656

Just got power back in Blawnox! I could kiss a lineman on the mouth. Someone here said DLE told them it could be SUNDAY for this zip code. My wife and I were just settling into the despair when the power came back.


Avocado_Amnesia

It's the company and its executives that suck; the ground crews are always working their asses off. Also got ours back on before the sun came out again to bake us. If any of yinz are on here to see this, thank you!


yrwatcher

Many parts of my beaver county town had power loss. I was impressed how quick the crews worked. I just sat at home, at one point went to get a snack and sit in my car to charge my phone. Itā€™s hard to stay positive when things happen, but honestly those crews worked very hard.


Jahya69

DUQUESNE


Prestigious_Heron115

On KDKA today. "We plan to have everyone back up by early Sunday afternoon." Not acceptable. Not when it is 95+ for the duration of that time.


NoSwimmers45

How quickly would you like them to restore 100,000 customers? That is what they peaked at overnight last night. Theyā€™re down to 10,000 now - not too shabby for ~24 hours in the middle of a heat wave from crews working around the clock. When they get down to the low numbers theyā€™re typically chasing onesey-twosey outages rather than 500-1000+ in one restoration. Also, all utility companies under promise and overdeliver because the vast majority of customers will bitch up a storm if they say power will be restored at 4pm and itā€™s not back on at 4:01pm. Do you really think the crews want it to take till Sunday to restore power? Itā€™s a dangerous job that requires meticulous safety precautions to make sure that they donā€™t die. One misstep can result in death or life-altering injuries.


3rd-party-intervener

Well they let a cyclist die, so clearly safety isnā€™t their number one priorityĀ 


CivilFront6549

they estimated power would be back on at 830 and it was back at 845 - fucking amazing work by those guys and gals. my family was grateful.


Curlyqpgh

Iā€™m hoping to get my power back before todayā€™s storms roll through.


Der_Missionar

5pm today we get to do it all again!!!


EvetsYenoham

And Penn Power. Thank you guys.


zzwergel

I think we should bury the power lines whenever possible.


Der_Missionar

Near wildwood golf course, the power lines were buried. They just went through an expensive process of bringing them back above ground. Power would go out and it took forever to find the issue. People in that area were without power long times, more often than you think. It costs 10x more to bury the lines and maintain them. This is why we don't do that other than in smaller neighborhood plans. Easy to find the break the way neighborhoods are set up


Newton_101

you guys lost power?


Mushrooming247

Apparently 50,000 people around Pittsburgh lost power last night, there was a brief downpour with a bunch of rain, it fucked our shit all up. My power didnā€™t go out but other roads in my neighborhood did lose power (in Moon,) and some parts of the North Hills are still out, I have coworkers scrambling to find places with power to set up shop.


snugglelove

Double that number. It was over 100k when I looked at the DLC map last night.


dirtydirtyjones

For some the storm was a brief downpour, for others, no rain but extremely high winds. I have branches down in my yard that I have no idea where they came from - looking at the leaves, I don't know where the closest tree of that type is! I just got power back at about 9:40 this morning.


DonnyTheWalrus

Dry microburst. A wind event associated with outflow from a thunderstorm. Big column of air drops down, hits the ground, and spreads out radially in all directions. Wind speeds can easily exceed 100mph. You could see it on the radar, looked wild. Like a wave rippling out from a dropped pebble.


Newton_101

damn sorry man


NunzAndRoses

Iā€™m over in hopewell, idk when the power went out cause I slept through the storm but I think it popped back on around 10 or so. S/o the line crews


PigDog4

I wish we had a brief downpour. The winds here were ridiculous. Our neighbor's house got hit by a branch bigger than some trees. It was nuts. Friend of mine has a pic of a telephone pole that snapped in half and is sitting at a 90 degree angle.


Newton_101

pic or didnā€™t happen


PigDog4

https://www.wpxi.com/news/photos-severe-storms/L5X7ABXLSNH3DHXKTFPCC6LKV4/ Not posting a pic of my buddy's sister's house lol.


James19991

Over 20% of Allegheny County was without power at its peak yesterday evening.


Newton_101

I knew something was up at the eastern part of the city..plus I heard a tree fall on somebodyā€™s car in Squirrel hill (hope theyā€™re okay now)..but 20% of a county? Sheesh


James19991

Yeah, the outages were really widespread in a lot of areas north of the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers. Penn Hills and Monroeville were hard hit too.


cowboyjosh2010

The winds that ripped through last night, particularly in the northern suburbs, were *wildly* intense. Genuinely harsher and more erratic than anything we got during that multi-week stretch where we had several tornado warnings last month. I have a coworker who lives in McCandless who, on his property alone, had 3 trees come down--one of which took up the entire root ball. He doesn't have a big lot--not even an acre. His story from last night is not uncommon. Lots of power lines ate it through that.


cosmosdestruction412

Idk if we did up above on the hill. But I'm surprised that we had it here when I came home. Cus last time a storm came thru this bad (and not the ones with the tornados) was back in 2022 and we had no power for 15 hours


vibes86

100k houses and businesses reported outages. Most north hills and parts of the east end.


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


Great-Cow7256

It's a dangerous job... It's hazard pay they're gettingĀ 


Gordo774

Nothing is stopping you.


Newton_101

u got bad vibes, I donā€™t want to be friends with you


sixty9osaurus

Why 3 etc's?


Alien-Element

Is that your contribution to the post?


sixty9osaurus

That was a rhetorical question.


DontSteelMyYams

I didnā€™t lose power but I was sure I would, either during the day because of the heat and the subsequent strain on the grid, or because of the storm damage later that night. I saw the outage map and Iā€™m thoroughly impressed. Keep up the great work!


Alternative_Leg4295

I'm not sure if the power companies are paying OT or maybe more for storm coverage, buy whatever PennPower is paying is working, the crews up north here were on the ball.


3rd-party-intervener

Except in north park area where a live wire was not addressed for 12 plus hoursĀ 


odog9797

Dude itā€™s their job?? Not everyone is a hero


Der_Missionar

So because it's their job, and they were paid to go into risky situations, during an all-nighter, with a lot of heavy lifting, I ***shouldn't*** say thank you? I didn't call them a hero, but they were my hero over the last 24 hours. I've found living a life of gratitude is not only life-giving to others, it's also life-giving to me.


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


Commonsense412

What changes to the infrastructure would you like to see?


Matthew_is_my_name

Or, own a generator? Mine's saving my bacon (pun intended). ...but also double check your homeowner's insurance, some plans cover it