Region mostly spared from strong storms
A large tree uprooted outside of Printscape Arena at Southpointe and narrowly missed striking the building when it toppled over Saturday. (Photo by Mike Jones)
Mike Jones/Observer-Reporter
Mike Jones/Observer-Reporter
A large tree uprooted outside of Printscape Arena at Southpointe and narrowly missed striking the building when it toppled over Saturday afternoon.
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The region was mostly spared from the worst of Saturday afternoon’s thunderstorms that brought gusting winds and caused widespread power outages.
While the storm left thousands of customers in Southwestern Pennsylvania without power, crews with West Penn Power were on standby and able to get electricity restored to many of them within hours after the storm hit around 1:30 p.m.
The National Weather Service reported wind gusts of 55 miles per hour at its Moon Township facility. The weather service also received numerous reports of trees down in the area and damage to some structures.
In Fayette County, there were about 800 customers out of service Saturday afternoon with more than half being in Wharton Township. By Saturday night, the bulk of customers across the county had service back, according to West Penn Power.
Albert Gallatin High School’s matinee performance of its Shrek musical was postponed after the building lost power Saturday afternoon, according to a Facebook post by the district’s drama club. A photograph showed many in the audience using their cell phone flashlights to illuminate the theater after the lights went out. The matinee performance resumed Sunday night, according to the Facebook page.
Greene County appeared to get hit harder by the storm and initially reported about 7,300 outages – nearly one-third of the entire county. The majority of the problems were in Waynesburg, where nearly all of the 2,300 customers in the borough were without power at some point, along with widespread outages in Cumberland and Franklin townships. By 4 p.m. Saturday, most of Waynesburg and Franklin Township were fully restored.
Across Washington County, nearly 10,000 customers were without power at one point, with more than half of the outages being attributed to Cecil Township, Bentleyville and Monongahela. By Sunday afternoon, only 2,400 outages were reported as crews continued working to restore power.
Parts of Southpointe were left without power and traffic lights were mostly out in the mixed-use business park in Cecil Township. A large tree uprooted outside of Printscape Arena at Southpointe, but narrowly missed striking the building when it toppled over.