About 3,500 West Penn Power customers found themselves in the dark Sunday night as power crews dealt with two separate issues 15 miles apart.

Todd Meyers, West Penn Power spokesman, said wind and rain on Sunday night caused a tree to take out two utility poles and their wires around 9:40 p.m. near Butler Memorial Hospital.

Five minutes later, a vehicle hit a utility pole on Caldwell Drive in Jefferson Township.

The tree fell on wires between two utility poles along Route 68 near the hospital, pulling the poles down and interrupting service to about 2,000 customers in Butler and communities to the north, Meyers said.

Crews worked to replace the poles and restring the wires late Sunday night.

While some customers saw power restored just after 11 p.m., all customers had their electricity back by 1:50 a.m. Monday, Meyers said.

The tree was not in the West Penn Power right of way, where foliage is trimmed and compromised trees are removed.

“That's one of the top causes of outages for utilities across the state,” Meyers said of errant trees falling on lines.

The car accident Sunday on Caldwell Drive also broke a utility pole and dropped wires, he said.

About 1,500 customers in the Jefferson Township area were out as a result.

Crews replaced the pole and restored power by around 1:30 a.m. Monday in that incident.

Meyers said two separate incidents causing a relatively wide swath of outages in a nonsevere weather event is relatively rare.

“There were lots of folks in Butler and outside the city limits that would have had their Sunday night football interrupted,” he said.