Penn Hills family with ongoing health issues forced to stay in hotel amid power outage, cold weather

PENN HILLS, Pa. — A Penn Hills family is among the customers still waiting for electricity to be restored several days after Friday’s storm.

Iymaani Koranteng, who lives in Maryland, said she has been increasingly worried about her parents in Penn Hills, where they have been without power and heat for four days.

“It’s been extremely frustrating,” Koranteng said.

She said the temperature inside the home dropped to 37 degrees, forcing her parents, who both have ongoing health issues, to leave and stay in a hotel.

“The house actually got down to 37, my mother said,” Koranteng said. “Her hands were freezing and she said we just couldn’t take it any longer.”

Koranteng said strong winds knocked a tree onto the home, leaving a hole in the roof and a live electrical wire on the ground.

“It’s a hazard,” she said. “I was shocked to see no one came out. I assumed the least they would do is have someone come out to just tape it off. That never happened until Sunday.”

Duquesne Light said crews are making progress, but restoration work is slowing as they reach the final outages.

“We’re down to about 2,000 people left from Friday’s storms,” said Matt Neistein with Duquesne Light Company. “Early on, we can make a repair and maybe turn on an entire circuit of customers so a thousand people or more,” the spokesperson said. “That same exact job that takes the same amount of time may now only turn on five customers.”

DLC said hazardous conditions paused work Monday night, but crews have since resumed.

Channel 11 saw some of the more than 500 out-of-town crews working in Penn Hills on Tuesday.

Koranteng said her family has tried to stay patient, but the long wait is becoming harder.

“I don’t want my parents to be overlooked,” she said. “I don’t want anything bad to happen and the only thing somebody can really tell me is we’re really sorry.”

DLC has support and resources for customers impacted by the ongoing outages here, under “What community resources are available.”

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