Rico, 71, and Chris Fontana, 68, were left trapped in their powerless Allegheny Township home after Tuesday’s violent storm downed a large pine tree across their driveway and scattered wires, trees and a transformer across the nearby road.

Living on well water, the Fontanas were left with dry shower heads and toilets that wouldn’t flush.

The couple spent the next 24 hours walking buckets of water to their home without any way out of their neighborhood.

“It was a little bit tough at first, but I just wish we could get the power restored, that’s all,” Rico Fontana said.

After the couple made a call to township Supervisor Jamie Morabito, West Penn Power and township crews quickly arrived with chainsaws to clear a path.

Like many others throughout Western Pennsylvania, the two remain without power, but now they can at least leave their home to shower and rest at the houses of family.

At its peak, the outage affected more than half a million customers in the region.

However, Duquesne Light and First Energy Corp., parent company of West Penn Power, have restored electricity to much of the area.

West Penn power reported fewer than 27,000 of its customers remained without power late Friday evening, mostly in pockets of 50 customers or fewer.

As of late Friday evening, Duquesne Light, which powers most of Allegheny and Beaver counties, said it had a little more than 73,000 customers still without service. Restoration could take five to seven days for some households.

Heather Malky, 55, of Oakmont seems to be on the far end of that range.

She got a message from Duquesne Light stating her power likely would be restored Tuesday evening — a full week after the storm.

Malky’s son got electricity back at his Oakmont business Wednesday and, since then, she said she has worked her remote job from a back room there.

Though she managed to save her frozen goods in her son’s freezer, Malky said she lost a few hundred dollars worth of refrigerated food.

Safe and with a relatively undamaged home, she said her circumstances are “a real inconvenience” but could have been much worse.

“Everybody is just sort of waiting,” Malky said. Allegheny County released a detour route because Hulton Road will continue to be closed near Allegheny River Boulevard while storm damage is addressed

Because of road closures and detours in the small borough, she said, traffic by her home has been unrelenting. She and her husband plan to stay the next two nights across the river in a Harmar hotel “for her sanity,” Malky said.

In Gilpin, Kristen Lowry, 37, has been forced to play a strange game of limbo each day as she drives beneath a downed telephone pole blocking the only entrance and exit on her street.

Though her car is able to thread the needle, Lowry said getting her husband’s truck around the obstacle has been worrisome.

“It’s unfortunate and scary right now,” she said.

Lowry said there are 50 to 60 of her neighbors in the same situation.

The couple managed to save their refrigerated goods by stowing them at Lowry’s parents home, where she also has been working her remote job. They managed to set up a small gasoline generator Thursday at their home to preserve frozen foods.

Since the storm, Lowry said, she has received four messages from West Penn with differing estimated restoration times. But on her street, with only 20 customers, she said she does not feel like a priority for the power company.

“The trust issues are there right now,” she said. “It’s very unnerving to say the least.”

But it’s not the lack of power that concerns Lowry. Her primary concern is the large pole serving as an obstacle to first responders in case of an emergency.

Andrea Jackson and her husband were gifted a generator by her parents a few years ago. It has come in handy the past couple of days.

Jackson, 42, of New Kensington said outages in her neighborhood are “pretty sporadic.”

The generator managed to save her deep freezer, but Jackson said her family lost everything in their refrigerator.

With several days of school canceled in New Kensington-Arnold School District, she said child care for her 10- and 11-year-old has been a challenge while she and her husband work. With the help of neighbors and family, the Jacksons have made it work.

Jackson said she appreciates the many linemen and workers, some of whom have come from out of state, who are working to restore power, even if her house still remains dark.

“It’s been a learning experience, and I try to look at it like a glass half full,” she said.

Aside from households, several schools and businesses also have been forced to navigate the lack of power.

Freeport Area initially was set to hold its prom Friday at the Syria Shriner’s Center in Harmar, but after that location lost power, the district at the last minute was forced to move the dance to its middle school.

Highlands School District also was set to hold its prom at the Shriner’s center the following day but delayed the dance for a week after the outage.

Giant Eagle Public Relations Manager Jannah Drexler confirmed its New Kensington location lost power, though it has since been restored.

Drexler said refrigerator and freezer trailers generally arrive at impacted stores to preserve perishable goods during outages. In the case of New Kensington, she said, all cold and frozen products were saved, except some ice cream.