A powerful windstorm — punctuated by a rare late‑night March thunderstorm — swept through Berks County on Monday night, toppling trees and utility poles, blocking roads and leaving well over 10,000 without power across the county more than 12 hours later.
Gusts as high as 68 mph were recorded at Reading Regional Airport in Bern Township during the storm that began Monday evening.
A traffic signal blocks the 1000 block of Washington Street on Tuesday morning after a strong windstorm moved through Berks County. (Bill Uhrich – Reading Eagle)
The northcentral and southeastern parts of Berks were hit the hardest.
At about 10 a.m. Tuesday, Earl Township Fire Company posted on Facebook that it opened the social hall at the station for public access due to the outages and cold weather. Bottled water and Gatorade were available as were access to electrical outlets for charging mobile devices.
“All we ask is to respect our facilities during your time here,” the post stated. “We thank our township officials and emergency management for their commitment to providing our station with a full building generator for these circumstances. We will assess the outages and provide updates on this post of the status of the opening.”
The outages include 1,400 Met-Ed customers in Bern Township and Leesport. Some Bern customers reported they lost power Monday about 10 p.m. — about the time a gusty thunderstorm swept in — and were still waiting for service to be restored as of 11 a.m. Tuesday.
Poles downed by strong winds along Route 222 in Kirbyville on Tuesday morning. (Bill Uhrich – Reading Eagle)
About 3 a.m. Tuesday, the Berks County Department of Emergency Services reported that Route 222 would be closed for an extended period between Routes 73 and 662 in Maidencreek and Richmond townships while crews worked to remove multiple downed poles and wires. The road was reopened about noon.
As of 10:30 a.m., Met-Ed parent FirstEnergy Corp., which serves most of Berks, was reporting a total of 10,714 outages.
PPL Electric Utilities, which serves parts of western and southern Berks, reported a total of 420 outages in the county.
Met-Ed crews reduced the outage figure to fewer than 9,000 by noon, and alerted customers around midday that it was making progress quicker than expected.
The temperature dropped 36 degrees in less than 12 hours, from a balmy 71 just after noon Monday to 35 at 11:37 p.m., according to National Weather Service data based on instruments at Reading Regional Airport in Bern Township.
About a half-inch of rainfall was recorded at the airport, much of it coming during the thunderstorm.
Outages also affected much of northeast Reading on Tuesday morning, including the Albright College campus, according to reports.
An Albright spokesperson said a downed utility pole behind Kraras Hall resulted in a campus power outage and the cancellation of classes.
COURTESY OF ALBRIGHT COLLEGE
A screenshot from an Albright College security camera shows a toppled utility pole that damaged power lines, knocking out power to the campus Tuesday morning. (Courtesy of Albright College)
“The college is actively working to support students during this disruption and is prioritizing their safety as the situation is addressed,” Will Martinko, director of marketing and communications, said in an email shortly after 11 a.m.
Outage totals fluctuated throughout the day. As of 1:30 p.m., the following totals were reported (among scattered smaller outages):
• PPL: South Heidelberg Township, 83; Lower Heidelberg Township, 350; and Caernarvon Township, 69.
• Met-Ed: Amity Township, 143; Bern Township, 322; Brecknock Township, 476; Colebrookdale Township, 338; Earl Township, 251; Hereford Township, 341; Leesport, 523; Maidencreek Township, 247; Oley Township, 595; Pike Township, 157; Reading, 59; Richmond Township, 286; Robeson Township, 1,008; Rockland Township, 227; and Union Township, 642;