A Haverford Township man spent 20 years caring for his koi fish. This weekend’s power outage killed them.

Tom East’s koi drew praise from people across his inner circle: His grandkids grew up alongside the tropical fish. Neighbors and visitors often admired East’s scaly, multicolored pets and their living space, an ornate pond complete with bridge and waterfall.

Even East’s ex-wives — both of them — admired the fish, many of which grew to three feet long during their two decades in his backyard.

But East’s passion project suffered a setback over the weekend: June 19’s severe storm sent an ivy tree smashing into power lines near East’s Haverford Township home, cutting electricity to the system that supplies life-sustaining oxygen to the pond.

Powerless hours soon became darkened days. And two days turned out to be far too long to leave East’s 100 koi fish without oxygen.

“When I went out to feed them on Saturday, I noticed that all of them had died,” East, 76, said.

The severe thunderstorm that whipped across the region Thursday ranked among the 20 worst for power loss in Peco history.

Peco’s outage map showed more than 3,000 still without power as of Wednesday evening. And those outages knocked out air-conditioning systems in a week of record-setting heat in the Philly region.

East said he understands that his fallen koi don’t exactly top the public’s list of casualties. But Saturday’s tragedy wounded him deeply — and cost him dearly: Together, East said his fish may have been worth as much as $100,000.

East blamed Peco and Haverford Township for the fish’s demise.

He blamed township officials for the failure to have a long-dead tree removed from a nearby property, a threat to power lines. They did not respond to a request for comment.

Peco, he said, offered “false hope” in the estimates for restoration that it offered on its app, website, and automated hotline. Peco spokesperson Thomas H. Brubaker said much of the delay occurred when debris-clearing crews realized just how much foliage had fallen in the winds.

“This storm required a lot of vegetation management,” Brubaker said. “A lot of trees came down. A lot of branches came down.”

IBEW Local 614, the union representing Peco electricians in Philadelphia’s well-wooded western suburbs, blamed Peco.

“After any major storm, crews need to be dispatched quickly, safely, and efficiently to restore service,” local president Larry Anastasi said in a statement, “but Peco management has failed to adequately staff or train this critical team.”

Anastasi said that Peco was slow to provide instructions and that some crews found themselves sent to the same repair sites as others, delaying storm recovery and endangering electricians and residents.

In an email, Peco spokesperson Ben Armstrong replied that it takes time for Peco to shut off electricity to downed lines so its crews can safely work on them. Teams sometimes converge on a single location when more than one part if a circuit takes damage in more than one place, he said.

Armstrong said that in some cases, Peco users got their power back a full day ahead of projected restoration times.

East said he hopes that the township and Peco at least reach out to express condolences — and that both the power company and local officials commit to keeping up with the vegetation around area power lines.

He said he needs time to grieve before deciding whether he wants to raise new fish or simply fill the pond and call it quits.

“I don’t know if you can understand what it means to be totally dedicated to something in your retirement like this,” East said.