The National Weather Service said it suspects a tornado touched down in New Kensington early Wednesday, ripping roofs from buildings.
Elsewhere in the region, heavy winds destroyed hangars at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Unity, downed trees and power lines and left more than 40,000 people without power.
NWS radar showed a tornado touch down in New Kensington around 1:10 a.m., according to meteorologist Lee Hendricks. The radar is almost always accurate, he said. Usually, a survey team will go to the site of the suspected tornado to examine the damage and confirm the radar data, but that will not happen in this case because of coronavirus-related restrictions on field work, Hendricks said.
No injuries were reported from the storm, according to Westmoreland County 911, which noted several major incidents from around the area. The worst damage occurred between 2 and 3 a.m.
• Two hangars and an airplane were destroyed by high winds at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport. Another airplane was damaged.
• The roof was blown off St. Mary of Czestochowa church on Kenneth Avenue in New Kensington.
• The roof collapsed at George Thomey and Sons construction company on Constitution Boulevard in New Kensington.
• A tree fell on two houses on Clark Hollow Road in Ligonier.
There were many reports of downed trees and power lines.
Hendricks urged residents to exercise caution when dealing with debris.
Airport damage
Arnold Palmer Regional Airport Director Gabe Monzo was awakened around 2:30 a.m. with the news about the storm. The wind had picked up one of the hangars and Cessna airplane inside it — throwing both out of the airport toward Route 981. The hangar was owned by the Chestnut Ridge Flying Club.
Another hangar — owned by the authority — was picked up and destroyed by the wind. The Aerostar airplane stayed put, Monzo said.
“There’s extensive damage, the two hangars that got blown away were completely demolished,” he said.
Maintenance crews pulled the first hangar and the Cessna back into the airport. Work to repair a destroyed fence and other damage was set to begin this morning, Monzo said.
Near miss
Jessica and Randy Baker, of Ligonier, were in their bedroom on Clark Hollow Road when a tree crashed through their ceiling.
“We heard the whole house shake, and then the tree just fell through into our bedroom, like three feet above us,” Jessica Baker said. “We just thank God that we’re safe, and that this is all replaceable.”
Clark Hollow Road, Country Club Road and Darlington Road are closed because of fallen trees and wires, according to Ligonier Township Supervisor John Beaufort.
Power is out in most of the town, and officials don’t know when it will be restored, township Manager Terry Carcella said.
Power outages
More than 30,000 Duquesne Light customers have no power, including almost 3,000 outages in Sewickley and about 2,000 each in Glassport, Center Township, downtown Pittsburgh, Crescent Township and Robinson Township.
More than 11,000 Westmoreland County residents were without power as of 7 a.m., with Ligonier Township, Ligonier Borough and Rostraver among the hardest-hit communities, according to West Penn Power.
Repair efforts could continue into Thursday, West Penn Power spokesman Todd Meyers said.
“The guys were out working all night, the tree crews were out removing trees for lines making it safe for the linemen to go out and do their work,” he said. “We’ll be working until everybody is back on.”
He cautioned residents to keep social distancing in mind to keep tree crews and line workers safe from coronavirus.
Duquesne Light was not able to provide an estimate for when power would be restored.
“Crews will continue to work around the clock under COVID-19 protection protocol to restore power to all affected customers,” the company said in a statement.
by Jacob Tierney (2020, Apr 8) TribLIVE
