Gracedale Power Restored

Update, Friday at 6:30 p.m.: Power has been restored to Gracedale, according to this WFMZ report.

Update, Friday at 5:41 p.m.: PPL Electric Utilities has restored power to all Upper Nazareth Township customers, according to its outage map.

Original Story: Four days after Superstorm Sandy swirled through the Lehigh Valley, multiple generators still hum at Northampton County's nursing home in Upper Nazareth Township.

One of Gracedale's four back-up generators stopped working for about six hours Wednesday night, the county’s director of human services, Ross Marcus, told WFMZ.

"[Volunteer firefighters] had to make a line up the stair tower to pass out food trays to tower four [through] 10," explained Carl Strye Jr., president of Vigilance Hose Co. No. 1, on Nazareth Patch's Facebook page. "That went well, but we had to wait and see if they were going to evacuate and move residents to [the] old building in case [the generator couldn't be restarted]."

PPL Electric Utilities on Thursday took to its Twitter account to alleviate anxiety over Gracedale, saying it made sure the facility has back-up generation.

The extra generator from PPL, Marcus told WFMZ, is helping Gracedale keep up with laundry services.

According to the WFMZ report, residents have hot water, a cold-meal menu and snacks, and dimmed lighting. In addition, air temperature checks are being conducted every 30 to 60 minutes, and the building is operating within state-mandated standards.  

Marcus told WFMZ there is no danger to Gracedale's 700 residents.

PPL said it expects to have 80-85 percent of its customers restored by 11 p.m. Friday, Nov. 2. In the wake of Sandy, PPL tweeted, it has 2,300 different repair jobs to complete, most of which are in the Lehigh Valley, Poconos, Northeastern Pennsylvania and Bucks County.

As of 1 p.m. Friday, there are 533 customers in Upper Nazareth without power, according to PPL's outage map.

Out-of-state crews that have finished jobs elsewhere should arrive in Pennsylvania on Saturday or Sunday, according to PPL.

The power company added, "Help is on the way!"