An evening of high winds and strong rain downed trees and wires across Southwestern Pennsylvania on Thursday, knocking out power to thousands of homes and businesses throughout the region.
“We had a good line along the (storm) boundary that produced a lot of wind,” said John Darnley, observation program leader with the National Weather Service in Moon. “A good bit of them were in the 55-to-60-mph range.”
Allegheny County’s official Twitter feed was updating by the minute shortly after 6:30 p.m., as heavy rain moved through the area. From end to end, the storm system stretched from New York down to Garrett County, Md., Darnley said.
Thursday night there were more than 30,000 Duquesne customers without power. Richland, Moon Township, Fox Chapel, Sewickley and McCandless were among the hardest-hit areas.
Oh. pic.twitter.com/UHi9Cn3PQz
— Megan Guza (@meganguzaTrib) August 27, 2020
Most of the affected customers had power restored overnight, but there were still more than 10,000 in the dark as of 5:30 a.m., according to Duquesne Light.
The largest remaining outage was in Thornburg, with more than 1,000 people out of power.
WHAT’S THE FORECAST FOR FRIDAY?
More than 1,385 New Kensington customers were without power as of early Friday morning in the largest remaining outage in Westmoreland County, according to West Penn Power.
Downed trees are causing individual road closings throughout the region, including in Plum, where a felled tree completely blocked access to Spring Miller Road from Old Frankstown Road.
Spring Miller Rd at Old Frankstown Rd in Plum is completely blocked by a tree downed in tonight’s storms @PlumAdvancePGH pic.twitter.com/TqL1gU9l9G
— Patrick Varine (@VarineTrib) August 28, 2020
Darnley said the National Weather Service received no reports of a microburst, but that recent heat and humidity help fuel this type of storm activity.
“They’re all part of the ingredients that contribute to the strength,” he said.
Duquesne Light officials said the company experienced significant technical problems earlier in the evening “leaving customers without a way to officially report outages by phone, website or mobile app,” according to a statement. “Outage information instead was obtained through social media reports. DLC’s technical team has been working diligently to identify the cause of the issue.”
Crews are working around the clock to restore power, according to the statement.
Allegheny County said Friday that Boyce Park is closed until further notice because of the large number of downed trees. Crews will be cleaning up the park Friday.
