Many area residents and businesses are still picking up the pieces from a Friday nor’easter that left power outages and road closures in its wake.

Monroe County had many of the worst-hit areas and the highest percentage of PPL customers still without power on Monday. As of 9 a.m., 1,221 Chestnuthill Township customers and 1,026 Polk Township customers were awaiting power restoration.

Pleasant Valley School District’s elementary and intermediate schools were among the buildings without power, leading district officials to cancel school on Monday.

“We hope to open Tuesday and will provide updates as they become available,” Superintendent David Piperato said.

PennDOT had its hands full Friday as a heavy amount of snow fell in a short amount of time. Spokesman Sean Brown said crews did their best to stay on top of things, but faced many challenges along the way.

“This was a really unique storm,” Brown said Monday. “We had parts of Monroe County that got 20 inches of snow in a very short period. There were a lot of crashes and our guys had to work to get some vehicles out of the snow before plowing could continue. There were also a lot of trees and wires down and, again, that had to be cleaned up before things could move forward.”

Bundling up

Tammy Clarke, of Polk Township, said her family finally got its generator running midway through Saturday morning.

“I had run out of water for the baby’s bottle early on Friday,” Clarke said. “Just in time, our 16-year-old remembered she had a fresh bottle of water she’d been given the day before. This gave us enough water for two bottles until we were able to get the water on with the generator power.”

With no heat Friday, the family bundled everyone up in a few layers of clothes and put the toddlers inside sleeping bags. The temperature dropped below 50 degrees, she said, but the situation did bring some unanticipated benefits.

“The kids kept themselves busy with their toys and wild imaginations,” Clarke said. “It was actually really nice because our 16-year-old spent a lot more time than usual with our toddlers coloring and playing.”

Power was restored for the Clarke family Sunday night.

Many church services Sunday were also affected by power outages.

Lighthouse Baptist Church in Lehighton canceled morning services but did have its 6 p.m. evening service. Cornerstone Community Church in Kresgeville and St. Matthew’s UCC in Kunkletown were also impacted.

Generator anyone?

Generators were flying off the shelves of local stores as residents dealt with power loss.

“We have not had any generators in stock here since Friday,” Terri Palumbo, customer representative for Lowe’s in Lehighton, said Monday morning.

Many businesses along Route 443 in Mahoning Township were without power or running on generator well into Saturday afternoon.

Carbon County was down to 287 residents without power Monday morning, most of them in Penn Forest Township.

Lehigh County had 2,235 customers still without power Monday, Schuylkill County with 79 and Northampton with 1,619.

In Ross Township, 989 people serviced by Met-Ed were also without power.

“We’re working around the clock and are making good progress,” said Stephanie Raymond, PPL vice president of distribution operations. “We know it’s not easy being without power. Our customers should know we are bringing in all available resources to restore their service.”

PPL recalled about 25 linemen now doing storm restoration work in Puerto Rico so they can help restore customers to power in Pennsylvania.

Also assisting PPL are 100 contractors provided through PPL’s sister utilities in Kentucky — Louisville Gas & Electric and Kentucky Utilities. In addition, another 250 line workers were expected to arrive Sunday and Monday from utilities as far away as Florida, Texas, Ohio and Alabama.

Getting warm

The West End Fire Company on Route 715 in Brodheadsville hosted a warming center for those who lost power.

“It’s a place for people who have no power, so they can get warmed up a little bit, maybe charge their phone,” Chestnuthill Township emergency management coordinator Eric Hoffman said on Saturday.

Though the warming shelter provides some basic services, those in want of a shower or sleeping space had fewer options in Monroe County.

“We’re very concerned, because we’ve been hit like this before,” said Deserie Friend, who was at the shelter with her husband, James, on Saturday afternoon, said. “It’s very upsetting, especially in this area, that we don’t have enough help. I mean, we have the fire company here that’s helping us, but if we need to take a shower ... That’s a long time to go without the shower.”

“Even worse than that is that you can’t cook,” James said. “Everything is electric in my house — the stove, everything.”

The Friends said they were considering a drive to Stroudsburg for access to a shower and some other necessities.

Queen of Peace Church in Brodheadsville also provided a warming center, along with free coffee.

On the road

Friday’s nor’easter sent road crews, police and fire departments into overdrive to deal with the myriad issues on area roads.

Kidder Township police Chief Matthew Kuzma said that the township was prepared to deal with the additional traffic expected to be brought into town for the WMMR Cardboard Classic at Jack Frost, but the issues on Route 80 just made things worse.

“We were dealing with disabled vehicles, accidents and power lines down,” said Kuzma. “Also we had tractor-trailers getting stuck in the town because they were being detoured off of Route 80 when it was shut down.”

Kuzma said that they were lucky that there were no fires or other major emergencies in the township during the storm, but that Lake Harmony Fire Company was helping with cutting some trees that came down and slid into a ditch on South Lake Drive. According to Kuzma it took several hours before the road was reopened in that area.

In addition, Route 903 was shut down from Route 115 in Monroe County to Route 534 in Albrightsville due to power lines being downed in the area.

With the threat of another storm coming through the area on Wednesday, Kuzma said he is hoping for a better outcome.

“Hopefully this storm won’t be as bad as the last one,” he said. “I would just ask everyone to drive safely if they have to go out, and to stay home if travel isn’t necessary.”

In Chestnuthill Township road crews were dealing with much of the same throughout the 155 miles of township roads.

“Our road crew is primarily working on removing downed trees from the roadsides so that we can effectively plow the anticipated Wednesday snow,” said township Chairman Chuck Gould. “We still have many power outages and Merwinsburg, Frantz, Evergreen Hollow Roads and Aspen Way are closed.”

Brian Myszkowski and Judy Dolgos-Kramer contributed to this report.