Storms leave thousands without power

Fierce storms that swept through the Mahoning and Shenango valleys early today toppled trees and wires and left more than 23,000 First Energy Ohio Edison and Penn Power customers without electricity.
The bulk of the outages, more than 10,000, were in Columbiana County, in the Salem area and toward Alliance, said Paul Harkey, Ohio Edison spokesman.
In Trumbull County, 1,279 customers were without power and 326 in Kinsman.
In Mahoning County, 533 customers had no electricity on Youngstown's West Side, in Austintown and North Jackson, Harkey said.
In western Pennsylvania, more than 5,000 were without power in Butler and 1,200 were affected in Mercer.
Power was expected to be restored in Trumbull and Mahoning counties by this afternoon and later this evening or early Wednesday to other areas, Harkey said.