Wind storm knocks out power

If the rain had been snow, the winter storm that swept through the region early Friday morning would have been a blizzard.

Strong winds gusting above 40 mph toppled trees and limbs, knocking out power to more than 4,600 PPL customers, mostly in Plains Township and Wilkes-Barre.

Many residents in that part of Luzerne County received an early wakeup call when a loud blast was heard around 3 a.m.

PPL spokesman Rich Beasley blamed the winds and fallen tree limbs onto electrical lines that impacted power transformers, causing the loud blast near Maffett Street in Plains Township.

ā??It woke me right up; sounded like a bomb,ā? said Scott Lee of Abbott Street, Plains Township. ā??We couldnā??t fall back to sleep but we made the most of it. Our laptops were fully charged and were able to find out what happened.ā?

Lee said he usually wakes up at 5 a.m. for his job at a distribution center in Pittston Township.

ā??I didnā??t need my alarm clock this morning,ā? Lee said.

Weather recordings at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport by the National Weather Service in Binghamton, N.Y. reports what happened overnight through early Friday afternoon:

ā?¢ 1:54 a.m. 20 mph wind gusting to 44, temperature 44 degrees with light rain.

ā?¢ 4:54 a.m. 16 mph wind gusting to 36, temperature 49 degrees with rain

ā?¢ 6:54 a.m. 14 mph wind gusting to 29, temperature 42 degrees with heavy rain

ā?¢ 10:54 a.m. 15 mph wind, temperature 37 degrees with light rain

ā?¢ 12:54 p.m. 12 mph wind gusting to 21, temperature 35 degrees with light snow.

Nearly 1.5 inches of rain was recorded at the airport before it changed over to light snow Friday afternoon.

The Susquehanna River in Wilkes-Barre is on its way up and is expected to reach 18.6 feet by 1 p.m. Saturday, four feet below the natural flood stage of 22 feet.

High temperatures are expected to be in the mid-30s through Tuesday with the possibility of light snow on Saturday.