More than 126,000 people were without power in the PPL coverage area as of 5:30 p.m. Friday.

Summit Hill was in a state of emergency because so many people were without electricity. The Hill Top Community Center was open as a shelter.

Carbon County had 7,107 customers without power. Monroe County had 21,663 people without power, including 3,891 in Chestnuthill Township, 1,096 in Eldred Township, and 1,414 in Polk Township. MetEd had more than 2,000 customers out of power in Ross Township.

Northampton County had 8,823 PPL customers without power, including 449 in Lehigh Township and 7 in Walnutport Borough.

Lehigh County had 17,918 PPL customers without power, including 1,780 in Washington Township.

In Schuylkill County, 1,082 people were without power in West Penn Township, with others in Schuylkill and Ryan Township.

Lehighton borough secretary Brenda Kreitz said that around noon on Friday, customers along North Main Lane, Lehigh Drive, Route 443, First through Ninth streets, out to South 10th Street were without power, including the Heights.

The borough is one of 35 municipalities that owns its own electric utility, as Lehighton Light & Power is locally owned and controlled.

Kreitz said the power was out for about an hour and was caused by a tree at the borough’s sewer plant.

Trees were down on wires in many locations.

A tree knocked down wires at the intersection of Mill Road and Route 443 in Normal Square, closing the road for a good part of the day.

Another tree was hanging on wires on Canal Road.

Almost 24 hours

“Today’s nor’easter with its high winds is causing a lot of damage throughout our service area, and more bad weather is to come. There are many individual repair locations, so some outages may be prolonged. We urge customers to prepare for that possibility,” a PPL statement released through their website on Friday morning said.

“Our crews are working as quickly and safely as possible to restore power to all customers,” PPL regional affairs director Carol Obando-Derstine said.

Obando-Derstine recommended that all PPL customers keep their phones and other personal devices fully charged in the event of an outage, and report any outage to 800-DIAL-PPL (800-342-5775) or online at www.pplelectric.com/outage as soon as possible.

“Reporting your issue helps us to determine the size and scope of the outages,” she said.

An intense storm packing rain, snow and high winds is causing power outages across our service area, with about 1,500 repair jobs identified by late Friday afternoon, according to a statement from PPL.

The number of outages is expected to continue to grow as wind gusts cause additional damage. The utility’s repair efforts could last through the weekend.

“The combination of saturated ground and high winds is resulting in a lot of damage and a lot of tree-related outages,” said Stephanie Raymond, vice president, Distribution Operations. “PPL crews, coupled with contractor crews, will be working around the clock to get power restored. However, some customers could be without power for more than 24 hours.”

Difficult access to damaged lines and equipment and treacherous travel conditions are extending restoration times in some cases.

PPL reminds customers to stay safe and stay far away from any downed wires. If they see a downed line, let PPL know immediately.

Because of the high number of outages and the scope of repairs, estimated restoration times for individual homes or businesses may not be immediately available.

“We must first accurately assess the damage, so we can send the right crews and equipment,” Raymond said. “This allows us to restore power faster and more efficiently.”

Repairs are first made to support firefighters, police and critical public safety facilities, like hospitals. From there, crews focus on major power lines and substations that serve large numbers of customers. Where we can, we use switches and smart grid technology to reroute power to as many customers as possible until repairs can be made.

We give higher priority to repairs that will get the largest numbers of customers back in service as quickly as possible. We then restore power to smaller neighborhoods and individual homes and businesses.

“This is a powerful storm. Our grid investments are preventing more outages than ever, but there is still a lot of work to do,” Raymond said.

Carbon Plaza affected

Carbon Plaza Mall was in an area affected by power outages. Businesses like Big Lots and John Yurconic Agency put up signs that said they were closed for the day.

The Giant food store was open, but running on an emergency generator. Employees were boxing up frozen and refrigerated foods to be put on refrigerated trucks until power was restored.

District 11 has postponed tonight’s basketball playoff games.

The Carbon County Community Transit Shared Ride service was canceled to Albrightsville and Palmerton. Passengers who have already been dropped off in those locations will have return trips only.

Continuing strong winds may contribute to fallen trees and limbs, resulting in further outages.

Customers can sign up for PPL alerts through www.pplelectric.com.

Road closures

Road closures were numerous. Route 903 was a source of many problems. The road closed early in the day between 11th and Olympian Lane in Jim Thorpe because of a swaying pole. Later a crash was reported near Penn-Kidder Elementary. In the early evening the road was closed at Lake Harmony.

Route 534 was closed between Route 209 and Jonas Road due to multiple trees and wires down.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation temporarily reduced the speed limit on several roadways in the region, including Interstate 80 in Carbon and Monroe counties and Interstate 81 in Schuylkill County.

Sean Brown, PennDOT spokesman, said they’ve had their full complement of drivers out on 12-hour shifts, 12 hours on, 12 hours off, starting late Thursday night.

Brown said there have been a lot of whiteout conditions, specifically in Monroe County and the higher elevations in Carbon County.

“Our drivers’ main focus is the main interstates and expressways. We’ll get to all the secondary roads throughout the storm. Every road will get plowed and treated,” Brown said. “We will get to every road. It just takes little longer with a storm like this.”

Brown said there were crashes on the roadways due primarily to the heavy winds and whiteout conditions.

“We need the drivers to be our partner,” he said. “Avoid travel. If you have to travel, slow down, drive safely.”

Terry Ahner, Chris Reber, Brian Myszkowski and Marta Gouger contributed to this report.