In Hurricane Sandy’s wake, about 12,000 homes lost power in Lower Merion Township. Parts of Montgomery Avenue in Penn Valley were closed due to a fallen tree, and 40 streets were completely closed.
By Thursday, the number of powerless homes had been reduced to 4,800, but this still was well over a third of the total homes who had lost power. Nine traffic signals, many of them along Conshohocken State Road, also went out, leaving drivers with makeshift stop signs to govern traffic patterns.
The Narberth and Ardmore sustained very few damages; the biggest injuries fell upon those towns heavily forested, like Bryn Mawr and Rosemont.
Harcum College, citing storm damage, closed until Saturday, November 3rd, and the Bryn Mawr Patch called Harriton High School’s losses among “the most prominent power outages.” When asked about the school’s electricity status on Sunday, November 4, a worker at the site confirmed that all power would be restored in time for school on Monday.
The district also announced that, because Harriton was the only school left unopened on Friday the 2nd, it would not be closed on Election Day as previously planned. Polls will be moved to another location.
This has not gone over well with some Harriton students who had planned to work the polls. Ben Seltzer, a sophomore, had registered with the Romney campaign to man the booths from 9-12 AM, but now will not be able to attend.
Anna Wegbreit, head of the Obama Campaign’s “Harriton Division” for Election Day, says, “I feel like I’ve let them down. I had a bunch of people sign up to work polls, but now that we have school the volunteers won’t be able to make it. We had a certain number of people who I was supposed to make sure would be able to help the campaign, and now I think they’ll be disappointed that I wasn’t able to pull through.”
All other polling sites remain open. Harriton was the only major Lower Merion Township fixture to be severely affected by the storm.
Most stores were open by Wednesday to serve the public, and no Wawas were closed at all. Power outages are expected to be remedied by no later than Tuesday, but residents are still warned to be wary of downed trees and power lines that may still be active. The township has also opened “warming stations” in fire stations and most libraries, where residents can charge their appliances and get warm drinks and coffee.