Following a night of storms, heavy winds, and power outages, cleanup begins
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - On Sunday, communities in Pittsburgh and the surrounding area were picking up the pieces after wicked winds swept through.
KDKA's Chris DeRose shared more on the damage and the clean-up efforts.
There was a lot of storm damage on Saturday, and one house in Upper St. Clair had a very close call with their backyard tree.
"You get a feel for the scale of this thing. You can see the degree down here. This reached all the way out to, literally, was touching their house, the top of it," resident John Twerdok said.
RELATED: 1 person hospitalized after tree falls onto car on the North Side
Twerdok and his family were outside on their deck Saturday afternoon when the winds started to pick up. Not long after they went inside, they heard their 100-year-old Norwegian spruce come down.
"We were probably back in the house, more towards the center, probably five minutes, when we heard the crack and the boom. And the kids in the backyard, our grandchildren were in the backyard screaming."
Luckily, no one was hurt. Nassar Tree Care dismantled most of the tree's limbs that missed the house by just a few feet. Twerdok said that his homeowner's insurance will take care of repairs to his deck and admitted this all could have been way worse.
Damage like this could be seen all around the region on Sunday. In Versailles, a roof came off a cheerleading gym. Luckily, no one was using the facility at the time. But in McKeesport, someone was trapped by a fallen branch in their car until being rescued and taken to the hospital.
Twerdok told KDKA he is just blessed that no one was hurt, but he does have some words of wisdom for other homeowners.
"Just watch out for the trees around your house."
Now, the clean-up process is already underway; Twerdok said that this tree will be cut up and out of here as of Monday, but if somebody wants a very nice piece of Norwegian spruce, now is the time to contact him.
As for power outages, FirstEnergy told KDKA in a statement that the outages affecting West Penn Power and Penn Power customers started late yesterday afternoon and into the darkness has them still needing to assess damages.
In the KDKA viewing area, more than 50,000 West Penn Power customers were affected by outages but now, more than 36,000 have been restored while more than 55,000 Penn Power customers were affected by outages and 38,000 have been restored.
West Penn Power, in a statement, said they expect to restore service to the majority of customers by 11 p.m. on Monday, March 27. Some customers in Butler County are expected to have service restored by 4 p.m. on Tuesday, March 28.
You can track FirstEnergy outages on their website at this link.
As of just before 9 a.m. on Sunday morning, Duquesne Light Company said that they have worked throughout the night to restore power to the 40,000 customers experiencing an outage.
Eleven thousand currently remain without power and Duquesne has said they expect them to be completely restored by 8 p.m. tomorrow with many of those expected to be restored sooner.
Duquesne's outage map can also be found on its website.
In the surrounding areas, PennDOT has provided updates on road closures due to flooding, downed trees and wires, as well as debris in Greene and Washington counties. You can see them below:
Greene County:
- Route 4007 (Ackley Creek Road) is closed between Fletcher Run Road and Iams Hill Road in Richhill Township due to downed trees and wires.
- Route 3011 (Hargus Creek Road) is closed between Toms Run Road and Bluff Ridge Road in Jackson Township due to downed wires.
Washington County:
- Route 2036 (Pike Run Drive) is closed between Ventura Drive and Powerhouse Road in California Borough due to flooding.
- Route 2055 (Black Dog Hollow Road) is closed between Main Street and Morey Road in East Bethlehem Township due to debris on the roadway.
- Route 2081 (Daisytown Road) is closed between National Pike in California Borough and Pike Run Drive in West Pike Run Township due to downed trees and wires.
PennDOT provides updates on closures on the 511PA website which you can access right here.
If you're starting cleanup today, a reminder from the power companies, if you see a downed power line, keep clear and give the power company a call so the professionals can deal with it.
