BY FRANK SOJAK
Strong winds Wednesday toppled some trees in the northern and southern parts of Cambria County and caused isolated power outages in Cambria and Somerset counties.
Several trees or tree branches were knocked down in Westmont and Southmont, said a Cambria 911 spokesman. A tree also was knocked down on Sell Street in Upper Yoder Township.
The spokesman said there also were a few reports of the wind damaging trees in Johnstown with one of the incidents knocking out power to a couple of blocks.
In Richland Township, power was knocked out to three traffic lights in the area of Galleria Drive and Solomon Run Road. Richland firefighter Scott Zelek said police and a road crew arrived quickly and erected temporary stop signs to control traffic, he said.
Penelec spokesman Dennis Platt said there were isolated outages in Cambria, Somerset and Indiana counties.
Platt said the electric distribution system held up well despite the strong winds.
Other areas experienced more problems, he said.
In Bedford County, 9,000 customers in the Osterburg, Chestnut Ridge, Bedford and Everett areas lost power around 12:30 p.m. when a tree fell onto a line, located on a mountain, he said. Nearly 3,000 of those customers had power restored by 6 p.m., he said. The remainder were expected to have had power by 7:30 p.m., he said.
AccuWeather meteorologist Carl Erickson said wind gusts Wednesday in the Johnstown area averaged between 40 and 50 mph. The wind started to subside by evening, he said.
Today should be a much nicer day with just breezy conditions with sunshine in the morning before clouds start to arrive, he said.
He said there were pockets of even stronger winds in some locales such as Centre County.
The Centre Daily Times in State College reported that some panels on the scoreboard at Penn State’s Beaver Stadium that had been loosened for removal and replacement were blown onto nearby streets by the strong winds.
