It's Day 4 of the "Great Cleanup" from the Saturday Nor'easter

Approximately 44,000 of our friends and neighbors remain without power in the Lehigh Valley on Wednesday Nov.2, 2011.

The Saturday storm closed businesses and schools, some of which have yet to reopen. Emergency shelters are still open to those without heat. At the height of the storm, PPL had nearly 300,000 customers in about two-dozen counties without power. Hotels are still supplying shelter to many Lehigh Valley residents still without electric power.

Tree-cutting crews are working feverishly cutting up broken branches and downed trees. Damaged trees can be seen in almost every neighborhood in the Lehigh Valley - what a mess!


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Will handful of “Occupy Bethlehem” squatters be the Grinch that Stole Christmas 2011 in Bethlehem?

    If you hadn’t noticed there are a handful of squatters and a little tent shantytown located on the Payrow Plaza area between the Bethlehem Public Library and City Hall. Bethlehem's kind Mayor, John Callahan, even gave the group pizza on Wednesday but there might be a awkward problem for the Mayor and the city in the coming weeks, mainly – the traditional Christmas tree in the plaza.

    Tomorrow is the 1st of November and within a few weeks the long running tradition of erecting the city of Bethlehem’s large Christmas tree will be here. If you have never seen the tree arrive it is quit a sight. The tree comes in on a long truck trailer and a huge crane and skillful workers maneuver the large tree into place and anchor the tree with strong cables. The city then beautifully decorates the tree and erects the Christmas scene in front of the tree.

    Some questionable problems remain. It appears the squatters are in the way of erecting the tree. Will the tree be able to be erected safety with the squatters present? Will the squatters and tent shantytown become part of the Bethlehem’s beautiful Christmas tree and Christmas scene?


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Saturday's Snowstorm causes school closings today - Monday Oct. 31, 2011

    Power outages and downed trees throughout the Lehigh Valley area have caused many schools to close today - Monday Oct. 31, 2011.

    Many of the major school districts will be closed on Monday. Some closed schools are - Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton, and Quakertown school districts plus Allentown Central Catholic High School, and Bethlehem Catholic High School. For a complete list of SCHOOL CLOSINGS go to 69 News and view a list of over 150 school closings.


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Lehigh Valley was one of the hardest-hit spots in PPL's 29-county coverage area

    Approximately 300 crews from as far away as Kentucky and Michigan are working around-the-clock to fix roughly 2,800 instances of snowstorm damage to transformers, service lines and other electrical equipment failures. PPL has had to work on as many as 10 major lines that supply power to over 80,000 customers. Saturday's storm brought the biggest October snowfall ever to our region. Let's hope that that record will never be broken again.


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The Nasty Halloween Trick for 2011 was a BIG snowstorm .....

    Some traffic signals are still out in the Lehigh Valley and many downed trees continue to block roads. PPL crews are still working around the clock but many residents are still without power in Lehigh County. The bulk of the outages occurred in Allentown and South Whitehall. PPL customers are still without power this Sunday in Allentown, Bethlehem, Emmaus, Salisbury, South Whitehall, Lower Macungie, and Upper Saucon. The mantra is "Melt snow Melt"

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Rain & outdoor festivals just don't mix - Rain hits Allentown Fair & ArtsQuest both ...

    The Allentown Fair had a nice start but a soggy finish in 2011. The fair ended early because of the rainstorms. The overall week for the fair was a winner for fair goers and fair organizers both. The fair was forced to close 2 1/2 hours early Monday night. The estimates had the fair's overall attendance down about 50 to 60 thousand this year compared to 2010.

    Approximately 200 people or so were hardy enough to watch the final day’s concerts of ArtsQuest SteelJam festival on a very rainy Monday Labor Day. It was a wet close out to a 4-day festival in Bethlehem.

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Lehigh Valley is starting to feel like Mt. Waialeale in Hawaii with ALL this rain ...

I know the wettest place in the USA is Mount Waialeale on the island of Kauai in Hawaii but it sure is feeling like it here in the valley with all this rain lately.

Sure, Mount Waialeale has averaged more than 460 inches of rain over the last 32 years and it had a record 683 inches back in 1982 but does anybody live on that mountain. Yes, the Mount Waialeale summit is considered one of the rainiest spots on earth but I am beginning to think that the Lehigh Valley is moving up to number two.

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