"The Morning Call Inc., Copyright 2002"
Date: WEDNESDAY, July 30, 1986
HUNDREDS LOSE POWER IN STORMS
The Morning Call
The storms that swept through parts of the Lehigh Valley yesterday afternoon left several hundred Pennsylvania Power & Light Co. and Metropolitan Edison customers without power - some for seconds, others for several hours.
In Northampton County, 300 PP&L customers in the Bethlehem area were without power for several hours, according to Bert Daday of PP&L. The power outages occurred at 3:45 p.m., Daday said.
As of 8:25 p.m., 30 customers in the Bethlehem area were still without power. He said power was expected to be restored to the 30 ''shortly.''
Daday said 1,813 customers in the Slatington area also were affected. Power there also went out at 3:45 p.m.
Joseph Teklits, operational superintendent of the Eastern Division of Metropolitan Edison, said 350 customers in 31 ''trouble locations'' were affected by the afternoon storm. Teklits said the areas affected included Nazareth, Easton, Palmer and Forks townships. He said all customers had power restored by 6:40 p.m.
Lightning, transformer failures, fallen trees and limbs, and wind were given as reasons for the outages.
Charles Giannetta, meteorologist with the National Weather Service at Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton Airport, said 0.14 inches of rain was recorded at the airport. Giannetta said there were no reports of high winds, but there were reports of hail in the Carbon County area.
But in Lehigh Township, Northampton County, residents said hail, some as large as marbles, fell during the storm.
Giannetta said his wife, Virginia, operates an official weather station in Bath and that she recorded 0.89 inches of rain from the storm.
A severe thunderstorm watch was issued for the area from 1:45 p.m to 8 p.m. The watch meant conditions were favorable for storms to occur.
Giannetta said the storms were ''pre-frontal,'' caused by a cold front in the central part of the state. He said there could be more thunderstorms today and added there would be no significant changes in the weather pattern for the next five days.
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"WEATHER BY GIANNETTA"