WESTMORELAND COUNTY, Pa. — Crews with FirstEnergy are gearing up for an ice storm forecast to hit the mountain ridges Wednesday night into Thursday morning.
“It’s sort of the worst-case scenario,” said Todd Meyers, a spokesman with FirstEnergy. “Things can get very, very dicey with ice.”
Because of how heavy ice is, trees can sometimes break from the pressure.
“They can fall into the wires, you can have branches breaking off coming down and breaking wires, and at the same time, those wires can get ice on them and it can begin to pull that wire down as that ice accumulates,” Meyers explained.
But, Meyers said FirstEnergy is ready.
This storm has been on their radar for the last few days. He said extra staffing will be coming in just after midnight when the ice storm is likely about to start. They’ll have some crews staged in places like Ligonier, ready to go if and when any ice build up causes outages.
They’ll be able to work 16 hour shifts with eight hours of rest if the storm causes significant damage, and they’ll be able to get crews from other areas if necessary.
It’s something he said the power company prepares for all year.
“We spend tens of millions of dollars a year to trim trees and keep those rights of way clear,” Meyers said. “We can’t do all that work based on a weather forecast. We’re doing that year round and months in advance to prepare this system.”
Last month, Channel 11 reported Jeannette, Ligonier Township, and Greensburg all declared states of emergency because of their low salt supply. All three tell Channel 11′s Andrew Havranek they are good to go and stocked up heading into Wednesday night’s storm.
Meyers said if you see a downed line, don’t touch it.
“Make no mistake, touching a downed line can either lead to grievous injury or even death,” he said.
FirstEnergy said if your power does go out during this ice storm to report it as soon as possible. You can do so by calling 1-888-LIGHTSS (1-888-544-4877)
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