KYW Newsradio Team Coverage
Thunderstorms rumbled through the Delaware Valley on Tuesday evening, with strong winds that toppled trees and power lines.
As of 6am on Wednesday, Peco Energy had over 69,000 power outages. At the height of Tuesday night's storm, the utility company recorded over 152,000 outages.
As of 5am on Wednesday, crews reported they had restored power to over 82,000 customers.
KYW's Al Novack reports Montgomery and Chester counties were the two hardest hit areas.
Crews were working feverishly to return service but Peco's Cathy Engle had this note:
"Certainly there will be customers in the hardest hit area that we expect to have their service out for the next couple of days."
The three prime reasons for all the damage and outages: 60-mph winds, severe lightning, and heavy rain.
On Wednesday morning, PSEG reported few outages remaining in south New Jersey, but over 90,000 customers were without power in northern and central New Jersey.
The National Weather Service says the mercury hit 98 degrees in Philadelphia at 3:22pm on Tuesday -- one degree higher than the record of 97 set in 1964.
KYW's Pat Loeb reports authorities in Philadelphia were reporting two heat-related deaths on Tuesday. And in Delaware County, Pa., local police were investigating a child left all day in a hot car as air temperatures nudged 100 degrees.
Health officials around the region were treating it as most inevitable that there would be serious health problems for some people due to the four-day heat wave. On Tuesday afternoon, Philadelphia health department officials reported the first two deaths in the city related to this heat wave.
The two dead women are 82-year-old Genevieve Chmielewski of Port Richmond, and 65-year-old Deborah Jean-Louis of Wynnefield.
Both women had heart disease and the cause of death said it was that, along with excessive exposure to heat.
Meanwhile, a 14-month-old boy is in critical condition after he was left alone for 5½ hours in an enclosed car on Tuesday. Marple Township police say the child was left in a car in the parking lot of a trade school at Lawrence and Sproul Roads (see related story).
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