PITTSBURGH — A powerful storm downed trees and power lines, leaving more than half a million customers in Pennsylvania, Ohio and neighboring states in the dark on Wednesday, with officials reporting at least three deaths.
More than 425,000 customers were without power in Pennsylvania and another 40,000 were in the dark in Ohio, according to PowerOutage.us, a website that tracks outages. Neighboring states, including Michigan, New York and West Virginia also reported thousands of outages.
“This is a natural disaster, folks, the level of which we don’t see very regularly,” said Matthew Brown, the emergency services chief for Pennsylvania’s Allegheny County. Brown warned at a news conference that another storm was forecast to arrive on Thursday.
A Duquesne Light spokesperson called the storm’s damage “unprecedented” for knocking out electricity for some 250,000 of its customers and producing reports of 22,000 hazards, including felled trees, downed wires and broken poles. The utility was bringing in outside help to restore electricity, and outages could last a week, the spokesperson said.
3 storm-related deaths reported in Pa.
A man was electrocuted Tuesday evening while trying to extinguish a mulch fire near a utility pole as severe weather hit the State College area, damaging many trees and utility lines, police said. The 22-year-old man encountered an active electric current and died at the scene, police said in a news release. State College police said they believe the man’s death to be storm-related.
In Pittsburgh, first responders were called to the South Side Slopes area Tuesday evening for reports of a person electrocuted by live wires, and that person also died on the scene, according to a Pittsburgh Public Safety Department social media post. The department urged residents to use extreme caution when moving through the city, citing multiple hazards such as downed trees and possible live wires.
Allegheny County officials confirmed that a 67-year-old man was killed by a fallen tree at a home in Ross Township, just outside Pittsburgh.
Teams investigating wind damage in Pittsburgh area
The National Weather Service’s Pittsburgh office said destructive wind damage was seen across its region Tuesday. Straight-line winds gusted over 80 mph to 90 mph, which is stronger than many EF0 and EF1 tornadoes typically seen in the region, the weather service office said in a social media post.
A line of thunderstorms that swept across Pennsylvania formed what’s called a “bow echo,” or a bow-shaped line of incredibly strong winds that are strongest at the apex of the curve, according to weather service meteorologist John Bowen in State College. Damage was most severe where the apex passed, he said.
Pittsburgh International Airport recorded its third-highest wind gust in modern history at 71 mph, according to Liana Lupo, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Pittsburgh office. A team investigated wind damage in Wilkinsburg, just outside Pittsburgh, but could not conclusively say a tornado had touched down, Lupo said.
The Storm Prediction Center’s storm report map for Tuesday included tornado reports from Oklahoma and Missouri, dozens of hail reports and more than 580 high wind reports stretching from Oklahoma to New York, including reports of downed trees and power lines and roofs blown off buildings.
