First responders, road crews snap into action
Signs of the storm first appeared on the computer screens earlier this week in the National Weather Service's Pittsburgh office.
From there, meteorologists sent word to emergency responders. A spat of low pressure moving through the area was bringing along the season's first bout of frosty weather, according to meteorologist Bill Modzelewski.
Its resulting ice and snow promised sleepless nights and fast-moving days for the police, fire and medical professionals who launched into action as the forecasted weather arrived Thursday evening.
“It was predominantly,” Modzelewski said Friday night, “a lot of freezing rain.”
At 8 a.m. Friday, Butler Township police Lt. Matthew Pearson was dealing with a community without electricity.
“Over 50 percent of the township is without power,” he said.
The lack of power posed a potential danger for motorists. Traffic signals were out at a number of intersections, including particularly busy New Castle and Duffy roads and Route 68 and South Duffy Road.
Along with the complications from the outages, motorists had to deal with downed trees.
“There are like 100 trees partially or obstructing roads,” Pearson said. “Road crews can't get there fast enough.”
By around noon, most of the smaller trees that were blocking roads had been cleared or plowed by the road department.
Only one township road — Bessemer Avenue in Lyndora — remained closed after noon. The road was shut down due to a downed utility pole, another weather-related casualty.
The department's tree clearing efforts were being imitated throughout the county.
The chain saw gangPenn Township police Sgt. Jack D. Ripper, for instance, made good on his name Friday.He proved deadly — for fallen trees blocking township roads.But instead of a knife, he wielded a chain saw.“I ran a chain saw for four hours,” he said. “Damned near every road in the township was blocked or closed.”Penn's road department was out all day trying to hit as many roads as possible. Workers used their front-end loader to move the bigger stuff out of the way.The fire department helped, too. So did Ripper.“I went to the road crew and got a chain saw,” he said, “and went to work.”East Airport, Winters and Lakevue roads were some of the roads he tackled between 8:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.Even a sort of citizen army sprung up, here and there, with residents taking up chain saws and taking matters into their owns hands.“I appreciated that,” township Supervisor Doug Roth said of the unprompted volunteerism. “But when that happened, I'm always hoping someone doesn't get hurt.”There were so many blocked road that the township had to subcontract tree service businesses to share the load, said Roth, who also serves as public works director.Adler Tree Service was used to clear 10 to 12 trees on Robinson Run Road. The effort was rewarded and the road eventually reopened.The list of reopened roads grew as the day grew. But occasionally another road would be added or “re-added” to the list. A portion of Dodds Road, for example, closed after 2 p.m., for downed power lines.McBride Hill on Route 8 proved pesky for Penn Township. That part of the road was closed at least four separate times during the day as trees, once cleared, continued to fall.
Long day for crewsIt was a long day and a half for the road crew, Roth said, with little time for food and even less time for sleep.“We were out for 35 hours,” he said. “No rest.”At 10 a.m., Harmony Fire District Chief Scott Garing said the department received about 20 calls about trees, wires and poles that were blocking roads from Thursday night through Friday morning.The fire district worked to close roads while townships and municipalities cleared them, according to Garing.“There's nothing that any of us can do with these power lines that are down,” he said, “so there are extended closures all over the place — they'll be there for a while.”Garing said roads involving wires down, like Hartzell Road, may have extended closures until Saturday.“The power companies are operating in storm mode,” he said.Unionville Fire Department Chief Nathan Wulff said his crews were out all night Thursday.“We got no sleep,” he said.Unionville fire crews turned into lumberjacks of sorts beginning at 6 p.m. Thursday, trading in hose lines for chain saws.Wulff guessed the department received nearly three dozen calls overnight to daybreak Friday, and helped to take care of 40 to 50 fallen trees.“Power lines are down everywhere,” he said. “Trees are down everywhere. It's a mess out there.”
<b>Doctor appointments canceled </b>Butler Health Systems suffered several problems at satellite facilities, and staffers spent Friday morning making sure patients were OK.Jana Panther, the health system's director of public relations, said Friday morning that power outages caused by downed trees and electric lines throughout the county affected the Crossroads Campus at the intersection of Routes 422 and 38; the Benbrook Campus on Benbrook Road, which houses the health system's cancer center; and the Chicora outpatient location and primary care office on Medical Center Road.Panther said in a news release late Friday morning that staff was working to contact patients who had appointments and redirect patients arriving at the locations if attempts to reach them were unsuccessful.The majority of the health system's locations, including Butler Memorial Hospital, had power throughout and after the storm. The hospital itself was unaffected.Refuge from the coldWarming centers opened throughout the county to provide refuge from the cold for those without power.They hosted cold people like Kathleen and Ernie Gardina of Meridian, who were watching television Thursday night when the power started flickering. That night into Friday morning, they kept waking up to more than just a few bumps in the night.“We heard thumps and rustles all night long, just these trees that were coming down,” Kathleen Gardina said. Friday morning they woke up to a cold house and no power.Speaking at a warming station set up in Butler Township Volunteer Fire District's facility on Sparks Avenue in Meridian, the couple was grateful to have a warm place to stay.Mike Blessel, a volunteer with the department, set up coffee and tea for the Gardinas. Another couple, Catherine and Richard Cox of Butler Township, brought along their tiny dog, Brownie.“We expect we'll get more people as they start getting colder later in the day,” Blessel said. Through the night, he said the fire department received more than 60 calls and he expected the calls to continue at a steady pace.“It's just been wild,” he said.Catherine Cox and her husband planned to spend the whole day in the warming center.“We don't have electricity. We don't have nothing,” she said. “We'll be here 'till we get some power.“I woke up and thought, 'It seems awfully cold in here'.”By Friday evening, the American Red Cross opened an overnight shelter to complement the others and offer nighttime accommodations. That shelter, at First English Lutheran Church on North Main Street, and others were joint efforts by the American Red Cross and Butler County Emergency Services.Butler Community College closed its main campus and all other locations Saturday and Sunday due to power outages and other damages.<em>Contributing to this report were Tanner Cole, Jim Smith, Paula Grubbs, J.W. Johnson Jr. and Eric Jankiewicz.</em>
