Power remains out across region after high winds take down lines
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Route 136 was closed between Lusk and Preston roads in Nottingham and Somerset townships Monday morning after trees and wires were brought down by high winds.
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
Dave Young clears the entrance of Immaculate Conception Cemetery in Washington Monday after wind blew down a large branch that damaged the fence.
Power was slowly being restored across Washington County Monday, after high winds a day earlier took down power lines and trees, and the outages are expected to linger into today.
Todd Meyers, a spokesman for West Penn Power, said Monday that 9,500 customers in Washington County were still without power, with no estimated time for when it will be restored.
“We don’t have an estimated time for restoration yet, but we know it’s going to be multi-day event,” Meyers said. “They’re still assessing damage and seeing new things right now.”
He said the company had 130,000 customers impacted throughout the region since the wind started Sunday morning. As of Monday afternoon, power has been restored to about 75,000 of them.
“Between Westmoreland and Washington counties, that makes up more than half the customers that are out,” he said. “Those are the areas that were hit the hardest.”
“It’s very widespread,” Meyers said. “A lot of customers are still out.”
He said wind gusts at the Latrobe Airport were recorded at 69 miles per hour. Shannon Hefferan, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh, said the Washington County Airport recorded 56 mph winds Sunday night. She said Allegheny County recorded 61 mph winds.
Ron Sicchitano, Washington County’s emergency management operations officer, said that as of 7 a.m. Monday, the county received 264 calls for downed trees or debris in roadways, and they had about 209 wires down.
“As we get requests from people, we’re opening warming centers as necessary,” Sicchitano said.
He said Bentleyville, East Bethlehem, Carroll Township, Amwell Township and Charleroi fire departments have been set up as warming stations, along with the Morris Township municipal building, the South Franklin Community Center, the Canonsburg Senior Citizens Center and California University’s publication center.
Several roads also remained closed Monday due to downed trees and wires, said state Department of Transportation spokesman Jay Ofsanik. In addition, several area school districts canceled classes.
In Greene County, about 14 percent of customers, about 2,800, were without power Monday, Meyers said. He said Franklin Township had 300 customers out and Morris Township had about 400 out. Greg Leathers, director of emergency management in Greene, said the 911 center received about 100 calls from Sunday morning into Monday morning.
“The vast majority of the calls were for trees down in the road,” Leathers said. “When they came down they obviously took wires down with them.”
Meyers said that while crews are working 16-hour shifts “around the clock,” there’s only so much they can do while the winds are still high.
“Winds continued unabated throughout (Sunday) night,” he said. “We can’t put bucket trucks up in the air safely with wind speeds exceed 40 mph. It makes the trucks unstable and puts our guys in harm’s way.”
Meyers said West Penn Power is working to get additional contractors to help with the work, but that they’ll be coming from farther away, since utilities across the entire region are also seeking help following the storm.
“The storm started in the state of California, dropping two feet of snow out there,” Meyers said.
He said the storm caused blizzards throughout the Midwest and that it’s still moving throughout the east coast.
“This was a giant storm system that affected most of the U.S.,” he said. “This is just our unfortunate piece of it.”