Wind, storms knock out power to thousands
By SARA FURLONG
s.furlong@bradfordera.com
The wind whipped Sunday and wiped out power to thousands in McKean County — some were still in the dark as of Monday morning.
About 3,000 people in the county had their electric service disrupted as heavy winds and thunderstorms passed through the area last weekend, according to Penelec spokesman Todd Meyers. He said that 341 people — 159 in Liberty Township — still had no power the morning after the storms.
McKean County’s 3,000 were among 97,000 Penelec customers who lost power during the severe weather, Meyers said. As of about 5 p.m., Bradford City had 731 affected customers, 642 in Bradford Township and 774 in Foster Township.
Meyers said the outages were ‘all related to wind blowing trees beyond our rights-ofways where we are permitted to trim into our poles and wires, damaging equipment.’
Fire departments were called out for numerous downed trees, power lines and poles. Bradford Township’s Station 15 answered five storm-related calls that afternoon.
Storms… page A-8
Area fire departments responded to numerous calls of trees, power lines and poles down as a result of high winds and thunderstorms Sunday. A tree and power lines down on West Songbird Road in Bradford Township forced the road to be closed.
Era photo by Jay Bradish Lafayette Township Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department had a crew of eight manning Station 21 during the severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings. They were dispatched at about 2:45 p.m. for multiple trees down on Route 59, from Route 219 toward Marshburg.
Crews cleared all four trees blocking the road then returned to the station until the storm moved through and received no further calls, according to the department’s Facebook page.
Meyers reminded residents “to stay away from any downed wire, treating it as if it is live, energized and potentially deadly.” Keep at least 30 feet — about the length of a yellow school bus — away and report downed wires to 911 or to Penelec at (888) LIGHTSS, (888) 544-4877 or online at FirstEnergyCorp.com.
