Tuesday started out misty with a light rain but as the day progressed slight rainstorms turned into a day to be cautious, with periodic heavy rainfalls, 60 mph winds and thunderstorms which drenched McKean and Potter counties.
The National Weather Service in State College issued a flash flood watch from 2 p.m. on Tuesday until 2 a.m. today for nine northern counties, including McKean and Potter. Following shortly after the first notice, the National Weather Service released a second watch, to be cautious of tornadoes in 25 counties in Pennsylvania, including Cameron, Elk, McKean and Potter counties until 11 p.m. At approximately 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday the tornado watch in east central Potter County was upgraded to a tornado warning.
A tornado reportedly touched down in Crawford County, hitting a nursing home. No one was killed, but injuries were reported, news reports indicated late Tuesday.
While there was a lot of water, Lewis Run Mayor Vincent Montecalvo said he didn’t see any serious damage.
“There was some water in people’s yards and the streams were running a little high. But other than that, there wasn’t any damage that I saw or was made aware of,” Montecalvo said.
The periods of heavy rainfall had emergency services responding to calls around the area for flooded roads and residences.
At approximately 2:50 p.m. traffic control was requested for water running across the roadway half a mile before the intersection on Route 46 in Eldred. Just a few moments later emergency services responded to flooding in the roadway on U.S. Route 6 just past the McKean County Jail in Keating Township.
Smethport Fire Department said they were dispatched to two scenes for traffic control –– one scene being on Route 6 and the other on Route 446.
Not too long after services were dispatched in Eldred and Smethport, a call came in about flooding in a basement with water running so high as to cause a possible electrical hazard at a home in Liberty Township. A citizen also reported slowed-traffic on Kendall Avenue due to water crossing the roadway during the evening rain storms.
(Era reporter Caleb Huntoon contributed to this report.)
