Over 30,000 residents are still without power after Winter Storm Avery
Light at the end of the tunnel.
For thousands of Butler Countians, that's the feeling at the sight of a West Penn Power truck.
Utility crews manning those trucks continue working — non-stop — to fix outages following a two-day pre-winter storm that downed numerous power line across the county.
Headway is being made but as of 8 a.m., 22,555 West Penn customers remained without service. That's more than 21 percent of the utility's customers in the county.
There are an additional 8,476 customers of the Central Electric Cooperative without power in the county, which is more than 56 percent of the Parker-based cooperative customer base here.
At noon Friday, 37,000 West Penn Power and 9,313 customers had no electricity.
For West Penn customers, power may not be restored until 11:30 p.m., according to company officials.
The Central Electric website offers no timetable when service will be back on.
Trees brought down by freezing rain and ice onto power lines was the primary reason both utilities gave for the massive number of outages.
And downed wires continue in the county. According to the 911 center, between about 4:30 and 8 a.m., lines were reported toppled on nine roads.
Temporary warming stations were set up at a number of fires stations and social halls in the county.
Current list of available warming centers, according to Butler County Emergency Service' Facebook page:Middlesex Fire Department, 130 Browns Hill Road.Connoquenessing Fire Department, 180 Main StButler Township Fire District 3, 121 Sparks Ave.Bruin Fire Department, 100 Firehouse Drive.Butler City Fire Department , 110 North Washington St.Saxonburg Fire Department, 210 Horne Ave.Eau Claire VFD Social Hall, 137 N Washington St.Slippery Rock Bingo Hall 162 Elm St.
