Severe storms cause lasting outages, road closures, deaths in Western Pa.
Thunderstorms on Tuesday night, April 29, caused widespread damage and power outages across Butler County and workers were still cleaning up the in the aftermath Wednesday.
First Energy Corporation, the parent company of West Penn Power and Penn Power, reported 5,200 power outages in Butler County due to severe storms. Around 4,295 customers were still without power at about 11 a.m. Wednesday, according to spokesperson Todd Meyers.
West Penn Power reported overall outages affecting about 215,000 customers overall with only 60,000 restored by Wednesday afternoon.
“Crews from other FirstEnergy utilities in eastern Pennsylvania, Ohio and New Jersey are en route to help, packed to work for several days,” Meyers said.
He said an additional 1,200 contracted line crews are also on the way, but the company still expects restoration to take multiple days.
“We recognize electricity is the lifeblood of modern living and commerce and greatly appreciate our customers’ patience as we work round the clock to get their power restored,” Meyers said.
Central Electric Cooperative, based in Parker, said it was down to about 29 customers without power as of 10:20 a.m. Wednesday within its smaller coverage area, according to director of member services Lisa Hoober. She said about five customers without power were in the areas of Saxonburg and Butler Township, and about 12 customers in Fennelton were still missing power.
“Overall, with the storm that we had, we’re in good shape at this point,” Hoober said.
She said Central Electric Cooperative crews worked through the night to restore power. Many of the remaining outages are from downed lines and broken poles that will take longer to fix, she said.
Knoch Area School District schools were closed Wednesday following the storms. communications manager Jenny Webb said the combination of downed trees impeding travel, power outages and downed communication lines led to the cancellation.
Webb said online learning was impossible Wednesday with the number of students experiencing power and Wi-Fi outages, but Knoch’s campus had power.
Butler Area School District operated on a two-hour delay as leadership were making decisions between 4 and 5 a.m. about the day’s schooling, according to Superintendent Brian White. He said the intermediate high school closed due to power outages, and outside the district, Butler County Area Vocational-Technical School was also closed due to power outages.
Part of the decision-making involved working with the transportation company to find some alternative routes in areas where roads were closed. White said many district families were still without power Wednesday morning and the district was unsure how it would affect attendance.
Multiple district buildings were without power Tuesday before it was restored during the night, White said.
Firefighters had a long night with some crews out resolving incidents until 1 a.m. Wednesday.
“It was pretty backed up. We had a lot of incidents right out of the gate,” said Matt Cypher, Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Company chief.
Cypher said his company responded to 42 calls between 5:30 p.m. and midnight Wednesday.
He remembered hearing a sweeping gust of wind and rain before the calls began steadily coming in. Before his crew could leave the station, they were notified of a downed tree about 300 yards away blocking both lanes of Sarver Road they would need to cut to get out.
Many of the initial calls were from downed power lines and included several reports of trees falling into homes, Cypher said. In many cases, first responders on their way to an incident stopped at or reported another incident on the way.
Cypher said Monroe Road was closed until late Tuesday for downed trees, and Sarver Road between Smith and Monroe roads was still closed Wednesday morning with trees wrapped in live wires crews couldn’t reach.
Saxonburg Volunteer Fire Company responded to about 23 calls between 5:30 and 9 p.m., according to chief Christopher Dean.
Dean said his company knew what to expect in a severe thunderstorm, and had a firefighter remain at the station and relay calls to crews in the field.
Butler County’s 911 center answered about 2.6 calls per minute between 5 and 7 p.m. Tuesday.
The center recorded about 432 incidents in 2.5 hours and answered more calls in that period than it normally receives in 24 hours, according to 911 Coordinator Robert McLafferty. He said county 911 operators were coming in early and staying late to keep up with the volume.
During the storm, Butler County Emergency Services temporarily limited radio traffic to emergency communications only so it could screen calls and decide levels of priority. McLafferty said communications to emergency traffic are limited only if the center needs to communicate with emergency crews on the scene or when the center is overwhelmed. In such situations, 911 operators enter the call information into third-party software that sends it to the necessary police or fire company.
McLafferty praised county first responders in taking charge of the calls sent to them through the third-party software and his 911 operators saying they knew what they were getting into and stayed in the interest of public safety.
Allegheny County Emergency Services said on its Facebook page Tuesday’s call volumes were among the largest recorded in the department’s history.
It began storm preparations several days beforehand and was still overwhelmed by the reported 1,000 calls to 911 per minute. It said the national call center that manages 911 traffic reported more than 5,000 calls to 911 per hour in the region.
The department reported multiple disruptions to regional phone services caused by widespread power outages and damaged communication lines. It said its phone and public safety radio systems remained operational through the storms but may have experienced delays from switching to backup power and systems.
Attempts to reach an Allegheny County Emergency Services spokesperson were unsuccessful.
