Hundreds without power as storm cleanup continues in Cambria, Somerset counties
Residents across Cambria and Somerset counties awoke Monday to downed trees and power outages after Sunday's severe thunderstorms kicked up 60 mph wind gusts, authorities said.
'(Sunday) was a wild day,' AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Tom Kines said Monday.
The storm hit Cambria County with its strongest winds between 1 and 3 p.m. The John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport in Richland Township reported a peak gust of 63 mph, Kines said.
St. Francis University in Loretto canceled classes Monday due to no electricity.
Winds ripped away a metal roof addition off St. Stephen's Living Center on Chestnut Street in Nanty Glo, tossing portions onto the road and into nearby yards.
'It's still on the street waiting for (Penelec) to clean up the wires,' Nanty Glo Volunteer fire Chief Joe LaMantia Jr. said Monday.
Work crews Monday began the task of cutting up and carting away trees that toppled onto a house in the 300 block of Luray Avenue in Richland Township.
'We had a lot of calls in Richland and Geistown in the afternoon,' Richland Township volunteer fire Capt. Chris Meyers said Monday.
Firefighters responded to 14 calls between 1:30 and 3:15 p.m., he said.
Power outages hit both Cambria and Somerset counties.
The northernmost townships in Cambria County were still in the dark Monday afternoon.
Penelec online outage map showed all 135 customers in Chest Township were without power. More than 700 customers in Reade Township and 964 of 970 customers in White Township were without electricity. Power to all three townships is expected to be restored by 11 a.m. Wednesday, the outage map shows.
Somerset County 911 reported multiple storm-related incidents.
Michael Horvath, fire chief for the Northern Regional Fire Department, called Sunday a busy day. The fire department serves Scalp Level in Cambria County and five municipalities – Ogle Township, Paint Township and Paint Borough, Benson Borough and parts of Quemahoning Township – in Somerset County.
'Mainly, we ran about 10 calls from trees down to cable lines and power lines down throughout the area,' Horvath said.
No injuries or structural damage was reported, he said.
Horvath addressed Facebook chatter of some residents reporting a sonic boom supposedly caused by a meteor strike.
There was no explosion or meteor strike, he said.
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