Last night's wicked weather is still impacting Lehigh Valley residents this morning. First Energy reports about 2900 of its customers in Lehigh, Monroe and Northampton counties are without power due to damage caused by last night's strong winds. About 2100 of those still affected live in Monroe County. Meanwhile, PPL is reporting nearly 1300 of its customers in Carbon, Lehigh, Monroe and Northampton counties are still in the dark at this hour.
A church steeple was knocked down during last night's storms. The steeple fell off of the Trinity Baptist Church in the 600 block of Centre Street in Easton and ended up lodged between a car and the front of the building. No one was hurt.
A no visitation policy is being implemented again within the Lehigh Valley Health Network due to COVID-19. The policy is being reissued to protect patients from possible exposure to the coronavirus amid surging cases statewide. Beginning Tuesday morning at 7 o'clock, in-person visits will no longer be allowed except under certain circumstances like the patients being gravely ill or if a parent wants to see their child in the ICU. LVHN's hospitals will also be offering virtual visits.
Pennsylvania's Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine is expected to give an update today on the state's Early Warning Monitoring Dashboard. It helps local and state officials identify which counties are having the most trouble with COVID-19 and which could soon. Saturday, the Department of Health announced another 5551 cases of coronavirus, setting another single-day record.
New Jersey is setting alarming records with the number of new coronavirus cases reported on a daily basis. Sunday, 4540 additional positive cases were recorded along with 18 new deaths. Gov. Phil Murphy says the numbers are alarming and is asking residents to take the information seriously by wearing masks and staying socially distant.
The race for Allentown mayor has a new name in it. 27-year-old City Councilman Joshua Siegel celebrated his birthday Sunday by announcing he's running for mayor next year. In his announcement, Siegel, who also ran for mayor in 2017, describes himself as a "fearless, proven progressive." He and fellow council member Ce-Ce Gerlach caused a stir earlier this year when they called for shifting some police department money to social workers and criticized city police officers for their handling of an arrest of a man outside Sacred Heart Hospital. Gerlach, City Councilman Julio Guridy and Lehigh Valley economic development official Matthew Tuerk have either announced or will announce they're running too. Current Mayor Ray O'Connell hasn't yet decided if he's seeking reelection.
A woman is believed to be in critical condition after a stabbing in Palmer Township. The incident late Saturday night in the 2600 block of Northwood Ave. 38-year-old Victoria Longenbach was taken into custody. The victim is reportedly Longenbach's 64-year-old mother who lived at the same residence as Longenbach. The victim is at a local hospital trauma unit and is in critical condition.
President Trump's attorney, Rudy Giuliani, tells Fox News his legal team has collected evidence that corrupt software was used in Pennsylvania voting machines earlier this month, altering the results of the election. "We have identified 632,000 illegal votes. 632,000! It's enough to have the President win the state by 300,000, which is if you get that SmartMatic machine out," says Giuliani. President Trump continues to vow he won't stop fighting to uphold the integrity of the American election process.
The Eagles fell to the Giants 27-17 Sunday afternoon. Running back Miles Sanders says the offense has to be better, especially on third down. "We struggled a lot. We were 0-9 on third down. That's not acceptable. It's not going to get it done. You can't win games like that," Sanders said. The Eagles slip to 3-5-1 while the Giants are 3-7.