Some O'Hara Township residents among those facing dayslong power outage
O'Hara Township is one of the communities that's been informed by Duquesne Light to expect it may take two days until all of its residents who've lost power may have service restored.
Police Chief Jay Davis had O'Hara officers going door to door to check on residents along a portion of Dorseyville Road, which was closed from Brownshill Road to Beechview Farms with no access to residents or emergency vehicles.
Pittsburgh's Action News 4 spoke with some O'Hara and Fox Chapel residents who live along or near Dorseyville Road about what they're facing.
"It's been awful since 5 p.m. last night. I have a 6-month-old baby, I have a 5-year-old, and we don't have any food in the fridge that we can eat at this point. And it's hot," Fox Chapel resident Morgan Wilks said. "We're in the basement, hunkering down, and we just want this road to be cleared as soon as possible so we can get going."
Rob Strohm, an O'Hara Township resident, said, "We lost power immediately, and I just said to my wife, 'We're going to go out and get a generator and hook it up and go from there.' It worked perfect. We slept like babies. They sold 15 within four hours, they said, at Pittsburgh Mills. I was blessed."
Resident Janet Crowley, who lost power last night but had it restored today, said, "I feel grateful. I feel so lucky, and my heart breaks for the people still suffering."
"My babies couldn't sleep last night. It's hot. They want me to be able to cook dinner. I can't. I don't have access to anything," Wilks said.
Duquesne Light crews were visible at several locations along Dorseyville Road, working to restore power. Allegheny County public works crews and contractors were also in the area, working to remove trees that brought down power lines.
The affected stretch is primarily residential, but one small business on Dorseyville Road lost power and is losing revenue as a result.
"We had to close last night. We lost power last night, we closed last night, we're obviously closed today. And it looks like we're going to lose all the food," said Jeff Brungo, the owner of Brick and Barrel restaurant.
Julian Lane, the executive chef at Brick and Barrel, said, "I do not like to see food go to waste. I send a lot of food home with my employees at the end of the night. So it is unfortunate. It's a lot of wasted food. Lots of chicken, beef. Lots of seafood. We had a special in for the weekend for Father's Day.
Brungo said, "I just talked to my insurance. We're going to file a claim, and hopefully (insurance will cover the losses.) We have a pretty good carrier, so they should take care of the loss of sales and food we lost. But who knows how long that will take, and it's payroll week, so it's tight. But you do what you've got to do. So we hope we'll make it."
"What are you going to do? It's out of our hands. The guys are doing a great job. Duquesne Light's done a fantastic job of fixing what they could so far," Strohm said.
Duquesne Light spokesperson Alyssa Battaglia said via email, "When the extent of weather damage is widespread throughout the area, company personnel have to prioritize restoration in this order: public safety hazards, public health and safety facilities (critical customers), major circuits then small neighborhoods/individual homes."
