Fast-Moving Storm Causes Minor Damage Around Area

January 30, 2013 1:08 PM

(Photo Credit: KDKA)

Reporting John Shumway

Filed under

Local, News, Syndicated Local

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – A fast-moving line of storms caused some minor damage around the area Wednesday morning.

In Bridgeville, a tree limb came down and landed on a power line, which knocked out service to at least one home.

“A big, strong wind came through and I was looking out the window. It blew a limb off the neighbor’s tree, came down across the power lines and I just heard a big bang and a crash,” Wayne McGinnis said.

The power company was called to repair the lines. The fire department put up cones on Freedom Road to keep people away from lines that were sagging across the road.

The storm also caused damage to a Pennsylvania State Police helicopter at the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Latrobe.

(Photo Credit: Trina Orlando/KDKA)

The helicopter was sitting on a trailer, waiting to be pulled into hangar, when a 58 mph wind gust flipped it over.

No one was in the chopper at the time and no one was hurt.

A falling tree also slowed traffic on the Parkway West.

The tree fell on a hillside near Green Tree and debris scattered onto the road. However, the large pieces were contained behind the guardrail.

Police and PennDOT responded to the scene as a precaution.

Overall, the region survived the initial wave of storms earlier in the day; and now road crews are prepping for the possibly icy follow-up.

“You can’t pretreat because of the water that’s falling on the roads would simply wash that off,” PennDOT’s Jim Struzzi said. “The precipitation would essentially wipe all the salt that we put down right off.”

So instead, they are monitoring the road temperatures for the cue of when to start dropping the salt.