MONROE UNFILTERED: THE DAILY BUZZ | July 6
Cooldown Ahead, Storms Leave Thousands in the Dark, Gas Prices Holding Steady, and the Week Ahead
Monday, July 6, 2026
THE WEEK'S WEATHER
We start off with a cool soaker; a much-needed drop in temperature after last week’s sweltering weather; but watch for flooding throughout the area. The National Weather Service has a Flood Watch in effect through Monday evening, covering excessive runoff and flash-flood risk.
Monday brings a 69% chance of rain with periods of steadier showers through the morning commute, easing by afternoon, and a high of 72°F. Tuesday looks calmer, a 55% chance of AM showers, also cool with a high near 73°F. Wednesday is the pick of the week, partly cloudy with only a 10% chance of rain and a high of 81°F. Thursday and Friday bring the humidity back with showers and thunderstorms likely, highs in the mid-80s. The weekend holds a chance of scattered thunderstorms Saturday before clearing out some by Sunday. Keep the umbrella in the car all week.
THE LEAD STORY
If you live in Monroe, the lead story will not come as a surprise as you too probably spent the last two days navigating around closed roads, downed trees, and power outages. Two rounds of severe thunderstorms tore through the region over the holiday weekend, and Monroe County was the hardest hit in Northeastern Pennsylvania both nights. Friday night's storms knocked out power to 6,261 Monroe County customers at the peak. Saturday night brought a second round that cut power to 5,728 more Monroe County customers, part of 16,717 outages across nine counties in the region, according to PPL Electric Utilities.
As of Sunday afternoon, the damage was still being counted. Live outage tracking showed 9,782 Monroe County customers without power, nearly 10% of all tracked customers in the county and the fourth-worst total of any county in the state. Crews from PPL and FirstEnergy have been working through the weekend to restore service, but if your lights are still out this morning, you are far from alone.
PPL says customers who lost power may be reimbursed for up to three bags of ice and three gallons of water per day during the outage by submitting receipts along with their account information to the company's Allentown claims office.
THE DAILY RUNDOWN
Road Work Begins Today. UGI's construction project on South 9th Street and Mill Alley in Stroudsburg begins today and is expected to last roughly three weeks, per State Rep. Tarah Probst's office. Expect limited parking and road access in the area.
Local Fuel Index. The average for East Stroudsburg is $3.81 per gallon, essentially flat, down less than a penny from $3.82 per gallon this time last week. That is about 15 cents below the state average of $3.96 per gallon. Zoom out further and the trend is sharply downward. East Stroudsburg drivers are paying about 45 cents less than a month ago, though still roughly 65 cents more than this time last year. Nevertheless, holding well below $4.00 per gallon certainly feels like a win.
WHAT WERE YA THINKIN'?
SARPD Gets Their Man. Stroud Area Regional Police arrested Kasan Khalil Hall-Williams, 30, on Friday, July 3, at 11:23 p.m. while he was allegedly attempting to light a mortar firework. The arrest served two outstanding warrants. One was for theft and forgery dating to October 2024, and a second was tied to an alleged attempt to buy a handgun using false information at Pocono Pistol Range in Stroudsburg. Hall-Williams is being held at the Monroe County Correctional Facility. As always, he is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Anyone with additional information can submit a tip through Crimewatch.
Late Night Fireworks. I know I'm quickly becoming an old curmudgeon, but if you have dogs, you know that fireworks went off well into the wee hours of the morning this weekend. A reader pointed out that Pennsylvania law allows fireworks as late as 1 a.m. the morning after July 2-4 and December 31, and that checked out. Those are the state's default hours unless a municipality adopts stricter rules. For those of us in Stroudsburg and East Stroudsburg, our municipalities do not have their own consumer fireworks hours on the books, so the state's 1 a.m. rule applies there by default.
However, other municipalities in the area are stricter. Pocono Township, covering Tannersville, cuts it off far earlier: consumer fireworks there are only legal from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. on July 4. Mount Pocono Borough caps it at 11 p.m. So, in a county where, as Mark Twain reportedly once said, “common sense is the least common of the senses,” perhaps we should take another look across the entire county.
THE WEEK AHEAD
Mount Pocono Borough, Public Hearing, Tuesday, July 7, 5:30 p.m. This one is coming up, so mark it on your calendar. The Borough will hold a public hearing at the Mount Pocono Municipal Building to consider an amendment to the zoning ordinance addressing data centers, the same fight that has already played out in Smithfield and Tobyhanna townships. If you have opinions on data centers in Monroe County, this is your window.
Stroudsburg Borough Council, Tuesday, July 7, 7 p.m., 700 Sarah Street.
East Stroudsburg Borough Council, Tuesday, July 7, 7:15 p.m., 24 Analomink Street.
Smithfield Township Board of Supervisors, Wednesday, July 8, 6 p.m. No agenda has been posted as of this writing.
Smithfield Township Planning Commission, Thursday, July 9, 7 p.m.