Emergency crews directed traffic Sunday afternoon around downed lines on Whitestown Road near the intersection of Fairground Hill Road and Pierce Avenue. Butler County experienced damaging winds throughout Sunday and into Monday morning.

The huge storm that blanketed the Nevada desert with snow, caused flooding down South, and damaged dozens of homes, utility lines and trees in Butler County continues to be an aggravation for local West Penn Power customers whose service failed during the high winds the storm brought to the area Sunday.

Todd Meyers, West Penn Power spokesman, explained that because the storm was so widespread, crews normally coming from Ohio, New Jersey and West Virginia to help restore power in Western Pennsylvania are unavailable because their own areas saw heavy storm damage.

According to Meyers, West Penn Power crews and the regular contractors they work with will largely be on their own in restoring power in Butler and surrounding counties.

“There are going to be customers out for some time,” Meyers said Monday. “I don't want customers to think they're going to have their service restored in the next hour or two.”

Meyers pointed out that 65 percent of West Penn Power's substations and 65 percent of their lines were impacted by the wind, which began late Sunday morning and continued until Monday morning.

Meyers said although much of Monday was spent assessing the damage, headway was made in restoring customers' power. He said the number of outages was almost 5,000 early Monday morning, but that number fell to 3,092 by 9:30 p.m.

He assured the public that everything possible is being done to restore power to those affected by the whipping winds. He asked that customers be patient as the company works to restore power.

This is an excerpt — pick up Tuesday's Butler Eagle to read the full article.