Power outages anger central Pa. state senator: ‘It’s pure insanity’
The widespread power outages in Adams and Franklin counties this week have prompted a response from Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Mastriano.
Thousands of Adams County residents were without power during this week’s heat wave due to a blown transformer in the Littlestown area on Sunday afternoon, followed by a substation catching fire on Monday night.
Power in the region is mostly supplied through Met-Ed, a company owned by FirstEnergy.
In a post on Facebook, Mastriano addressed the outages, stating that “it’s pure insanity what residents have been dealing with lately.”
“I’ve been in contact with Met-Ed, pushing hard for a one-month credit on electric bills for customers affected by these repeated outages,” Mastriano wrote in the post. “So far, they’ve pushed back on the idea — but I’m not backing down.”
Mastriano continued, saying that “I’m now pressing them to reimburse residents for lost food and other related costs. It’s the right thing to do.”
“You deserve accountability — and I will keep fighting to make sure you get it,” he wrote.
According to the website of legal resources publisher Nolo, it is difficult to hold utility companies liable for losses related to their services.
“But it’s important to be aware that these kinds of cases rarely succeed when the outage or issue is attributable to severe weather or some other “act of God” (which, in legal terms, just means a major natural event that’s not under any person’s control),” their website states.
PennLive has reached out to FirstEnergy for a response to Mastriano’s post.
The company brought in mobile transformers on Monday night to replace one damaged in the the Littlestown area, only for a substation Gardners area in Tyrone Township to catch fire that same evening.
A total of roughly 7,700 customers were affected by outages throughout the week.