Heavy weather
JEFFERSON TWP. – After flooding and landslides ravaged the area last week, a tornado reportedly touched down in the township Tuesday, and heavy winds felled trees in other communities. BY CHRISTINE HAINES
Herald-Standard
JEFFERSON TWP. – After flooding and landslides ravaged the area last week, a tornado reportedly touched down in the township Tuesday, and heavy winds felled trees in other communities.
Jeff Nutt was inside his Jess King Road home when a reported funnel cloud ripped a dozen trees down on his property around 5:13 p.m..
“The limbs started hitting the side of the house. The lights had flickered a few times before that, but we really didn’t take any notice,” Nutt said. “It was just very strong wind, extremely strong. I’ve lived here 20 years and never heard anything like that before. It all just seemed to concentrate right here.”
David Simmons, president of the Grindstone Volunteer Fire Company, lives across the street from Nutt. He said he saw what caused the damage to the trees after hearing a noise like rocks tumbling down a hill.
“There were three funnel clouds. One touched down,” Simmons said.
He said the small funnel cloud technically didn’t touch the ground on Nutt’s property, just skimmed the tops of the trees, knocking them over.
It then moved further up the road, where it lifted a large tree out of the ground by the roots and dropped it across the road in Simmons’ field. Simmons estimated that the tree was thrown 200 to 250 feet.
One fallen tree engulfed a truck Nutt had parked in his yard.
Telephone service and electricity were cut off to the Nutt and Simmons properties and the immediate surrounding area.
Nutt said neighbors with chain saws were going to help him clear the fallen trees from his property.
“Everybody around here has wood burners and chain saws, so they just said to tell them when we wanted them,” Nutt said.
Nutt expected the mess to be cleared away in several hours, thanks to the neighborly help.
“It came pretty close to my house. Too close, is what it is,” he said. “This was all woods. I never had a hole in my woods before. It’s going to take some getting used to.”
Fortunately no one was injured as dozens of trees fell in several areas of Jefferson Township, and while several roads initially were blocked, Larry Stuckslager, chairman of the township supervisors, said all of the roads were opened soon afterward.
“I don’t know of any houses that were damaged, though it came close to the Nutts’ double-wide,” Stuckslager said. “There were tree limbs on the roof of Terry Hosler’s house, though it didn’t appear to be damaged. The tree was beside the house.
“It isn’t as bad as the flooding that hit us. The flood hit us pretty bad last week,” Stuckslager said.
The township sustained between $150,000 and $250,000 in damage to its roads, including damage to the Williams Road Bridge.
Stuckslager said the actual damage cost will depend on how much it will cost to repair the bridge.
“It’s going to take us a lot of time to clean everything, and now we have trees everywhere,” Stuckslager said.
The National Weather Service in Pittsburgh Tuesday could not confirm that a tornado touched down in Jefferson Township.
The weather service will review the pattern of damage to see if it is consistent with a tornado before issuing its official ruling on the weather phenomenon.
The Fayette County 9-1-1 dispatch office said there were numerous reports of trees down in several areas of the county Tuesday.
And, almost 2,000 Allegheny Power customers in Fayette County had their service cut.
Storms were blamed for several power outages affecting about 1,110 customers in East Millsboro, Smock, LaBelle and Hopwood.
Scott Shields, spokesman for Allegheny Power, said that as of 6 p.m., power had been restored to about 1,000 customers.
He said the remaining customers would have their power restored by midnight.
Shields said the outages started at 3:14 p.m. and continued until about 4:30 p.m.
He said most customers had their power restored in about an hour.
Meanwhile, Shields said Allegheny Power was still trying to determine the cause of an outage in Uniontown, affecting about 750 customers Tuesday afternoon around 1 p.m.
He said the initial call came from a Whiteman Avenue residence.
He said power was restored around 2 p.m.