Centre County 911, first responders recognized 1 week after storm rocked area

Last week, a rare derecho rocked Centre County, leading to tens of thousands of power outages and widespread damage. One week later, the Centre County Commissioners showed gratitude to the first responders and others who stepped up to help in the community.

At Tuesday’s commissioners meeting, Centre County 911 dispatchers, first responders, Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency staff members and line workers were recognized for the work they put in over the past week to field calls, respond to emergencies and repair power lines that were damaged in last week’s storm, which initially left about 35,000 without power.

Centre County 911 supervisor Jennifer Walters and dispatcher Keara Tice were at the meeting to accept the recognition, with Walters saying that about 1,500 calls were fielded during the storm’s first hour on April 29.

She added that around 300 notifications were sent to West Penn Power that evening, and several employees worked 16-hour shifts to make sure no 911 call was left unanswered.

“I’ve heard such great feedback from the community about how responsive Centre County 911 was during this crisis,” Commissioner Amber Concepcion said. “[The derecho] really was a dangerous situation and it seems like there’s just been tremendous professionalism with the response and in trying to keep people as safe as possible. ... So thank you for all of you work.”

During Monday night’s State College Borough Council meeting, State College Mayor Ezra Nanes also thanked first responders and offered condolences to the family of 22-year-old Chambersburg man Bryce Lowman, who died of electrocution in the borough during the storm.

“I just also really wanted to say thank you to all of the first responders, police, fire, EMS, even CATA, our public works teams and all of the line workers who helped to restore power, and really keep us all safe,” Nanes said. “That was very complicated and difficult situation with a lot of danger, and those teams have been working, and still working, around the clock to get us all back to normal, so thank you to everybody involved.”

The response to the event wasn’t just limited to those in emergency-related field though — local businesses, municipalities, fire stations and nonprofits offered services as well, providing water, ice, food, charging stations and showers to those without power.

Three days after the storm, more than 4,000 West Penn Power customers were still without power, with service restored to most areas by Sunday. West Penn Power’s crews received help from roughly 110 line workers from Met-Ed, another FirstEnergy utility company that serves roughly 560,000 customers in eastern Pennsylvania.

“Our first responders, police, fire, the line crews for West Penn Power did unbelievable work over the last few days,” State College Borough Council President Evan Myers said Monday. “Half a block away from my house, a big tree came down on someone’s back porch and part of their house, and the neighbors were out there helping. That happened all across, not just State College borough, but the Centre Region.”

For those who lost food during the outages, Commissioner Mark Higgins urged them to utilize the State College Food Bank, which is offering one-time emergency food distribution for residents. Those interested should call the food bank at 814-234-2310.

“Let us help you get back on your feet,” food bank director Allayn Beck wrote in an email.

Local officials have also discussed lessons learned from the storm and what could change in the future.

“We’re probably going to chat with PEMA — now that we’ve had 1,500 calls in a single hour — about what what we need to do to make our software more robust, so that we’re able to handle surges of that magnitude,” Higgins said. “Also, I think that we also might be a little more proactive after big storms in the future.”

Commissioners gave West Penn Power and Penelec “around 48 hours” of response time before calling in electric crews from the areas surrounding Centre County, he said.

In addition to possible software upgrades and response time adjustments, Higgins also spoke about the possibility of upgrading the county’s power line and electric infrastructure and said that while it could be beneficial, the commissioners don’t have the authority to make those sort of decisions.

“Altering the infrastructure is primarily up to the power companies, but of course local municipalities do have some level of control over that too,” Higgins said. “And obviously, we also hope the state legislature will step up and talk about [infrastructure upgrades.]”

While State College Borough Council member Gopal Balachandran acknowledged that burying utility lines would be a “huge project,” he’d like to see the borough explore it in the future.

“If there’s a way in which we can start thinking about how to get our power lines underground to prevent, or at least mitigate some of these climate risks that are occurring in the future, I think it would be really beneficial for everyone in the community and our region, frankly,” he said.