Power line explosions leave neighborhood without heat in subzero cold

Well, a power outage rattled the Montgomery County community. The video shows several transformers exploding in succession last night along King Street in Pottstown. In the aftermath, the entire block was left without power on one of the coldest weeks of the year. Action News reporter John Paul is live in Pottstown with the very latest. John, not a situation you want to live through or try to sleep through. No, I mean, look, like worst case scenario for the neighbors here on King Street in Pottstown. So Pico was out here for almost 20 hours trying to get all these lines repaired, all the different transformers that blew. They kind of blew in succession, as you mentioned. So no one had power all night long for almost 20 hours as it dipped below zero. We actually thought it was a gunfight. It wasn't a gunfight. These power lines and transformers literally exploded in Pottstown last night, plunging this neighborhood into darkness as temperatures dropped to negative three. Blankets and huddle up with my dogs to get heat. I mean, we all needed heat and there's not much you can really do besides that. Shania Lloyd is the one who took that video on King Street. So it started here and that's the transformer in the video. She says the power was out from 630 last night until about 130 this afternoon. Just take a look at her thermostat. My house dropped to 45 and it's sitting at 50 right now. She and many of her neighbors had to call out from work. Today, we talked to Pico about the issue. They are looking into the cause. They also have crews on standby for this weekend in case there are any other issues thanks to the storm. If issues occur, we're committed to working safely to repair those damages and restore service as quickly as possible. As for Shania, she's glad the power is back on and just wants her home to be warm again. Who knows how long it'll take to reheat? It'll probably take a while. Now, Rick, Pico just got back to me. Listen to this. They tell me the reason that all those transformers exploded was because of the extreme cold temperatures and so many people using power last night. It just overloaded the system and that's what you saw. So hopefully that's not a sign of things to come. We're live tonight in Pottstown. John Paul, Channel 6 Action News. Rick? All right, John, and we wish those folks in Pottstown all the best tonight. Thank you.