Sunday storm leaves thousands in the dark
NWS to survey Menallen Township for possible tornado
A swift moving storm knocked down trees, tore through power lines and left thousands in the dark.
West Penn Power spokesperson Todd Meyers said upwards of 14,000 Southwestern Pennsylvania customers lost power because of the storm on Sunday. About 6,000 were still waiting for power to be restored late Monday afternoon.
“We had 55,000 customers that were impacted (overall) in our coverage area … and it looks like in Fayette County, mostly out of the Connellsville area, was one of the hardest areas hit,” Meyers said.
Peak gusts reached as high as 59 mph in Connellsville, recorded shortly before 1 p.m. Sunday, said Chris Leonard, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh. The top speeds in Greene and Washington counties were 47 and 43 mph, respectively.
Wind speeds in Fayette County were high enough to cause damage on their own, including to the roof of a mobile home in Hopwood and to an outdoor shed in New Salem.
There were also reports of structural damage near Menallen Township, where the NWS will head Tuesday to determine if a tornado had touched down, Leonard said. The tornado may have been up to an EF-1, he said.
Menallen Township Supervisor Steve Myers said he and the other supervisors have been working with West Penn Power, the state Department of Transportation and other state and local agencies to try to clean up as much as possible.
“We’re doing our best to prioritize the safety of the residents and urge drivers to be very cautious on the road because there’s a lot of debris that we haven’t been able to get cleaned up yet,” he said.
He said the township has opened a warming center at the New Salem Fire Department, 427 Searight Herbert Road, Uniontown, to provide shelter and electricity to those who are in need.
Todd Meyers estimated that there were still about 50 downed power lines throughout the Fayette County area as of Monday afternoon. The wind gusts were powerful enough to break some power lines, he said.
“We have contractors working on it and we’ll shift it over to other utility line worthers from areas that weren’t as impacted. … It’s a big effort,” he said, estimating about 90% of customers would have power by Wednesday.
About 5,700 Fayette customers were without power as of late Monday afternoon. All but about 600 customers in Greene had power returned, and just over 100 in Washington were still waiting for restoration.
Sunday’s storm caused several school districts, including Albert Gallatin, Bethlehem Center, Chestnut Ridge Christian Academy and Uniontown Area to work either remotely or on a 2-hour delay due to power outages.
Reports in Greene County were primarily of wind damage, including a power pole that had fallen onto a house, Leonard said.
Richard Policz, emergency management director for Greene County, said there had also been reports of downed trees falling onto structures and power poles being blown over.
As of Monday afternoon, the only Greene County road that remained blocked by downed trees was Cottage Road in Jackson Township, Policz said.
“As far as I know, everything’s pretty much back to normal,” he said. “As far as roadways go, there were a lot of trees down that impacted the roadways, but between our townships and fire departments and PennDOT, we worked hard to get everything cleared up as soon as possible.”
In Washington County, the porch blew off a mobile home in Carroll Township, Leonard said. There were also reports of dime-size hail.
The powerful line of Sunday storms came in ahead of a cold front. Storm activity was confined to Sunday, with temperatures expected to rebound into the ’60s beginning today.
“Next chance of rain is going to be Wednesday into Thursday, but right now, although there’s a chance of thunderstorms, they’re not expecting anything nearly as strong as what we saw yesterday,” Leonard said.