Bon Air neighbors losing confidence in Duquesne Light as power restoration time keeps getting pushed

PITTSBURGH — Neighbors in Bon Air are still dealing with a lack of power and a mess in their neighborhood.

Trees, lines and poles are still down a full week after powerful storms rocked the region.

“Just trying to be level-headed and know that everyone is working toward getting it fixed,” Ryan Cavanaugh said. He’s storing food at his parents’ house and showering at the gym.

Channel 11 visited the same area five days ago.

Then, we saw a number of trees snapped. One of them is in Cavanaugh’s front yard.

“You know when your eyes don’t want to believe what they see? I was seeing a different landscape. It was just bizarre,” he said.

The tree is lying on his neighbor’s house.

The area is one of several that Duquesne Light now says will have power restored Wednesday, instead of the original Tuesday deadline.

“Duquesne Light keeps telling us one thing and the goal post keeps getting moved back. It’s rough,” Emma McDonough said.

She, her husband Jimmy and son Eli are stuck in the dark.

“The hardest part is not being able to plan or prepare,” Jimmy said.

They tell Channel 11 they’ve seen a number of crews, just not ones making repairs.

“We’ve had a lot of wire watchers,” Jimmy said.

“They sit for 12-hour shifts right where we’re standing,” Emma said.

We asked DLC about the role of wire watchers and why they couldn’t make repairs. We received the following statement:

At DLC, most employees have storm roles to ensure efficient and safe restoration to customers. “Line Sitters” are responsible for keeping the public safe until qualified first responders or lineworkers arrive. The reason that line sitters can’t work on lines is because they are not qualified lineworkers and can come from different departments around the company.

Someone did assess damage on Monday.

Neither the McDonoughs nor Ryan Cavanaugh are confident they’ll see power restored soon.

“Unless they have a magical way of getting back there and fixing these poles,” Cavanaugh said.

“Unless they’ve got a magic wand that can put the poles up for us,” Emma said.

No magic yet.

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