A powerful storm downed trees and power lines, leaving more than half a million customers in Pennsylvania, Ohio and neighboring states in the dark on Wednesday, with officials reporting at least three deaths.
To the west, flash flood warnings were issued across much of southern Oklahoma and northern Texas on Wednesday as slow-moving thunderstorms dropped record rainfall, grounding flights and forcing some evacuations.
More than 425,000 customers were without power in Pennsylvania and another 40,000 were in the dark in Ohio, according to PowerOutage.us, a website that tracks outages. Neighboring states, including Michigan, New York and West Virginia also reported thousands of outages.
“This is a natural disaster, folks, the level of which we don’t see very regularly,” said Matthew Brown, the emergency services chief for Pennsylvania’s Allegheny County. Brown warned at a news conference that another storm was forecast to arrive on Thursday.
A Duquesne Light spokesperson called the storm’s damage “unprecedented” for knocking out electricity for some 250,000 of its customers and producing reports of 22,000 hazards, including felled trees, downed wires and broken poles. The utility was bringing in outside help to restore electricity, and outages could last a week, the spokesperson said.
Authorities say 2 electrocutions in Pennsylvania are storm-related
A Pennsylvania man was electrocuted on Tuesday evening while trying to extinguish a mulch fire near a utility pole as severe weather hit the State College area, damaging many trees and utility lines, police said. The 22-year-old man encountered an active electric current and died at the scene, police said in a news release. State College police said they believe the man’s death to be storm-related.
In Pittsburgh, first responders were called to the South Side Slopes area Tuesday evening for reports of a person electrocuted by live wires, and that person also died on the scene, according to a Pittsburgh Public Safety Department social media post. The department urged residents to use extreme caution when moving through the city, citing multiple hazards such as downed trees and possible live wires.
Allegheny County officials confirmed that a 67-year-old man was killed by a fallen tree at a home in Ross Township, just outside Pittsburgh.
The National Weather Service’s Pittsburgh office said destructive wind damage was seen across its region Tuesday. Straight-line winds gusted over 80 mph to 90 mph (129 kph to 145 kph), which is stronger than many EF0 and EF1 tornadoes typically seen in the region, the weather service office said in a social media post.
Teams investigating wind damage in Pittsburgh area
A line of thunderstorms that swept across Pennsylvania on Tuesday night formed what’s called a “bow echo,” or a bow-shaped line of incredibly strong winds that are strongest at the apex of the curve, according to weather service meteorologist John Bowen in State College. Damage was most severe where the apex passed, he said.
Pittsburgh International Airport recorded its third-highest wind gust in modern history at 71 mph (114 kph), according to Liana Lupo, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Pittsburgh office. A team investigated wind damage in Wilkinsburg, just outside Pittsburgh, but could not conclusively say a tornado had touched down, Lupo said.
The Storm Prediction Center’s storm report map for Tuesday included tornado reports from Oklahoma and Missouri, dozens of hail reports and more than 580 high wind reports stretching from Oklahoma to New York, including reports of downed trees and power lines and roofs blown off buildings.
Heavy rains produce flash flooding and evacuations in Oklahoma
The weather service warned that heavy to excessive rainfall could produce additional flash flooding Wednesday across parts of the southern Plains, with the greatest risk along the Red River Valley into western Arkansas. Scattered severe thunderstorms were possible from north central Texas, across the region and into Louisiana with possible hail, damaging winds and tornadoes.
In Lexington, Oklahoma, a city of about 2,000 located about 40 miles (64 kilometers) southeast of Oklahoma City, a handful of homes were evacuated Wednesday as floodwaters rose and several streets were closed, officials said.
At least one person was rescued after their vehicle became trapped in Oklahoma City floodwaters, which set a record on Wednesday with 11.94 inches (30.33 centimeters) of rain in April, surpassing the 1947 mark of 11.91 inches (4.85 centimeters), said Oklahoma State Climatologist Gary McManus.
Statewide, Oklahoma was poised to break the 1942 record for statewide rainfall average of 8.32 inches (21.13 centimeters) for the month of April, McManus said.
In the Dallas area, departures were grounded at Dallas Love Field and Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport because of thunderstorms, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Hundreds of flights were canceled at DFW International Airport and dozens at Love Field, according to FlightAware.
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Brumfield reported from Cockeysville, Maryland, and Levy from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Associated Press writers Jamie Stengle in Dallas and Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.
