Weather service: Tornadoes hit Westmoreland County

By QUINCEY REESE and JOE NAPSHA

Trib Total Media

Three tornadoes touched down in Western Pennsylvania late Wednesday, damaging homes and downing power lines, the National Weather Service said Thursday.

An EF-2 tornado with wind gusts up to 115 mph was spotted near Route 22 in the Beaver Run Road area and cut a path through parts of Salem and the Derry Township area, said Jeff Craven, meteorologist in charge of the weather service’s office in Moon.

“I’m super confident this is a tornado,” said Evan Bookbinder, a National Weather Service meteorologist who was surveying damage at the Kepple farm on Hannastown Road, where a cow barn was flattened and the cone of a metal silo was torn off and left hanging by a cable.

Another storm that swept through Trafford and Penn Township originated in Wall in Allegheny County, Craven said.

The wind speed of that tornado has yet to be determined, Craven said.

A third tornado Wednesday night, an EF-1 with winds of around 90 mph, formed near Route 22 and Old Steubenville Park in Robinson and moved through the Oakdale area.

Cleanup, restoration

Penn Township public works employees were out until 1 a.m. clearing trees off roadways and were back out at 6 a.m. to do it all again, said Tom Lamacz.

The Paintertown and Claridge communities sustained the most damage in the township, said Lamacz, public works foreman.

“If you see a road closed sign, do not go around it,” he said. “There are possibly live wires tangled in the trees.”

FirstEnergy officials informed Lamacz it aims to have power restored to the area by 10 p.m. Thursday.

More than 4,150 homes are without power in Westmoreland County, according to the power company’s outage map. In Allegheny County, FirstEnergy reports nearly 80 homes without power.

Duquesne Light reported about 31,000 customers without power Thursday, including about 5,000 customers in Trafford and surrounding communities, according to spokesperson Ashley Macik.

Nearly 200 Duquesne Light crew members are working to restore power to the region, she said.

Salem area

Salem Deputy Emergency Management coordinator Chris Tantlinger was conducting an assessment of the damage at about 20 properties in the township. The information they will collect will be sent to the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, Tantlinger said.

The Forbes Road fire department had 70 calls Wednesday, said Chef Bob Rosatti. Large trees and utility poles were snapped and uprooted.

“It split through the south side of Salem Township,” Rosatti said.

Michael Kepple was at his home on a hillside above the barn Wednesday night when he said he heard the storm coming from the direction of Route 819, west of the family’s 200-acre farm.

“It was extremely loud. There were leaves and branches hitting the house and we are in the middle of a corn field. It was a wall of water,” Kepple said.

Kepple said he gathered his children and went to the basement to wait it out. He said he never heard the storm tearing off the roof of a silo or toppling the cow barn. One large sheet of the barn siding was left hanging on the power lines along Hannastown Road.

Michelle Kepple said they were lucky that all of the animals were in the pasture.

Dennis Knokovich said he was standing outside his Orr Road home off Hannastown Road in Salem Wednesday, less than a halfmile from Kepple’s house, when he heard the storm roll in.

The storm knocked over a large tree in Knokovich’s yard, tore down a section of gutter and damaged the garden.

”If that wasn’t a tornado, I don’t want to see one,” Knokovich said.

Penn Township

Nearly two months after being recognized for its more than a century-old forest, Bushy Run Battlefield in Penn Township is littered with uprooted trees, fallen branches and at least one downed power line.

The state historical site of the 1763 clash between British soldiers and Native Americans during Pontiac’s War was closed Thursday, said museum Manager Matt Adams. There is no timeline on when it will reopen.

“Right now, we’re going to go through today and check out, just try and assess the place — see how many trees are down, how many trees are going to need to come down because they’re dangling or they’re dangerous,” Adams said as he drove a golf cart around the property Thursday, surveying the damage.

He encouraged residents to monitor the park’s website and social media accounts for updates.

Dianna Long and her husband, Frank Pescatore, were surprised by the amount of trees the storm knocked down in their yard along Chestnut Lane in Penn Township.

“(It was) pure quiet, heard nothing,” Long said. “But then an alarm came on the TV, and I said to Frank, ‘I think we’d better go downstairs. This doesn’t look good.’” Shortly after their power shut off, the storm pummeled against the sides of their home, she said.

“Within a minute, you just saw everything going sideways … and heard the thumping of the trees,” Long said.

Pescatore was awoken around midnight to the sound of their dog, Ruby, barking as workers removed a tree blocking Chestnut Lane.

“The diameter, it’s got to be 24 inches,” Frank said. “I’d go measure it, but I don’t want to go anywhere near the power line.”

More storms ahead

The conditions that created severe storm on Wednesday were the result of a cold front clashing with mostly humid air, which had been predicted a few days in advance, Bookbinder said.

“So far this spring and early summer, it’s just been crazy,” he said.

The next round of severe weather is likely to come this weekend, he said.

“Keep your eye to the sky Saturday,” he said.

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