NWS Confirms EF-0 Tornado In Butler County
PITTSBURGH (KDKA/AP) - The National Weather Service has confirmed an EF-0 tornado in Butler County during Monday's severe storms.
According to the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh, the tornado hit near Prospect.
EF-0 tornado confirmed near Prospect in Butler County, PA. Updated details later.
— NWS Pittsburgh (@NWSPittsburgh) May 2, 2017
Sam Fair wasn't home when the storm hit in Prospect Monday afternoon.
"One of my niece's friends called and said something happened at the trailer park, there was a bunch of trees down," said Fair, as he stood in his yard in Butler County Tuesday morning. "So, whenever I come home that's when I seen all this."
Fair spent most of Tuesday morning in his yard, clearing the damage from a tree that fell in his yard.
"The branches didn't break completely off," he said, "that's why my nephew is cutting them off now."
The trees in Fair's yard and many of his neighbors' yards fell Monday, during the storm. Large stumps and branches could be seen in nearly every yard. One tree fell across all four of Kim Ford's vehicles.
"It was a real big pine tree," she said. "It came from this side of the pine tree, and it covered all of the cars and came all the way over to here."
She added, "The truck, the cab's smashed, so that's probably going to be done, the Malibu the back window is gone."
Ford says a tree fell on her home too, but it wasn't heavily damaged.
"I've never been in anything like that, the sounds and the way the stuff fell and the way I looked at the rain and stuff, I'm leaning toward a tornado," she said.
Ford and her neighbors have the memory of an unforgettable storm and the destruction as proof of its strength.
"It just seems like it's a dream," said Ford, "and just to clean up and everything."
Meanwhile, investigators were also expected to visit areas of Clarion and Forest counties to determine whether tornadoes touched down Monday afternoon.
More than 25,000 people were left without power in the Pittsburgh region and another 19,000 or so in Centre County, about 100 miles to the east, though only a few hundred were still without service early Tuesday.
The National Weather Service office in State College said Tuesday that investigators surveying damage near Rebersburg in Centre County found evidence of an EF-1 tornado.
Officials said preliminary survey results indicate that the tornado followed a mile-long path Monday and damaged more than two dozen properties.
Fire crews rescued a man trapped in a shed that collapsed in Miles Township, Centre County. Further east, the roof of the Bethel AME Church in Williamsport was blown off in a storm that also toppled several trees.
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(© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)