PITTSBURGH — Crews from outside of the Pittsburgh area are rolling in to help restore tens of thousands of power outages that remain after severe storms on Tuesday.
“It was pretty emotional seeing all the trucks come on the property, and they’re here to help,” Duquesne Light field operations manager, Russell Profaizer told Channel 11.
Those trucks came from all over the region, with utility workers who came to help get the power back on in the Pittsburgh area.
At this point, there are nearly 500 extra crews helping to restore power lost in Tuesday’s storm.
“It’s like an unwritten rule but when other utilities see needs, we all want to help each other out,” he added.
Samantha Sapolek lives in Greentree, and still doesn’t have power, but she has noticed the crews working.
“We see you and appreciate you so much, keep doing it. We know you’re out there and working for us,” she said.
Duquesne Light typically books hotel rooms for workers from out of town, but because of a busy weekend in Pittsburgh, most places were all booked.
So, they turned their parking lot into a make-shift hotel — with trailers that have beds, bathrooms, and showers.
It’s the first time they’ve ever created a home base like this. They got the idea from when Duquesne Light crews went down to Florida last fall to help restore their power after a hurricane.
“We got to live that world in Florida last year. They had 50k workers down there,” Profaizer said.
Right now, Duquesne Light says the latest power will come back on for customers is May 6th.
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