s.furlong@bradford.com

By SARA FURLONG

An intense burst of rain and wind downed trees and power lines Tuesday, leaving nearly 1,300 McKean County Penelec customers without power.

A precipitous drop in temperatures from Monday — when temperatures were in the 70s — to Tuesday and Wednesday — when temperatures were forecast in the 40s, 30s and even 20s — had winds whipping.

According to Penelec spokesman Todd Meyers, trees damaged a line in the 1000 block of West Washington Street at about 1:30 p.m. leaving

Squall… page A-8

Bradford Township Volunteer Fire Department and Bradford Township Police were dispatched to 895 High St. at 12:10 Tuesday afternoon for a large tree that fell onto the road and was blocking traffic.

Era photo by Jay Bradish 1,010 customers dark near the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford campus and west, toward Stickney.

Most of those customers, Meyers noted, had been restored as of about 2 p.m.

Crews were also working to repair a broken crossarm — also wind-related, Meyers said — along Minard Run Road, not far from Degolia. Repairs were expected to restore power to about 260 customers in Bradford Township by later Tuesday afternoon.

“McKean County joins all of Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey, Maryland and West Virginia in a day of high winds gusting from 35 to 50-plus mph until later tonight,” Meyers observed. “As the wind continues to blow, it is possible the severe weather will bring new outages to additional customers. Penelec crews will continue working until the last customer is restored.”

Meyers said that as of 2:21 p.m. the company still had about 12,000 customers without power — 300 of those in McKean County. In addition to those in Bradford Township, another 40 households were affected in Annin Township.

Numerous area volunteer fire departments were dispatched to deal with trees and wires down, including Bradford Township, Derrick City, Rew, Lafayette Township, Mount Jewett, Smethport and Port Allegany. Bradford Township fire and police were dispatched to 895 High St. at 12:10 for a large tree that fell onto the road and was blocking one lane of traffic. Firefighters were on scene for 30 minutes to clear the tree.

Penelec customers can phone (888) LIGHTSS to report their outages. If there are downed wires, remember to stay at least 30 feet away, the length of a yellow school bus. Assume it is live, energized and potentially deadly, and keep kids and pets away. Call (888) LIGHTSS or 911 to report downed wires or damaged electrical infrastructure.

“We encourage our customers to report outages,” Meyers said. “The more data points we have, the easier it is for our crews to track down more precisely where the damage has occurred.”