Severe weather injures 10, damages homes, businesses

Outages affected approximately 18,000 customers in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys.
STAFF/WIRE REPORTS
Storms triggered by a fast-moving cold front swept across Ohio and Western Pennsylvania overnight and this morning, damaging homes and businesses, knocking down trees and utility lines and injuring 10 people, most in the Wooster area.
In the Mahoning Valley area, Ohio Edison had repair crews out all night and expected to have crews out all day, said spokesman LuAnn Koch. Power outages affected roughly 6,300 customers in Ashtabula County, 1,000 in Warren and 1,700 in the greater Youngstown area, she said.
Wires were brought down by high winds that uprooted trees and toppled utility poles, Koch said. Replacing poles is labor-intensive work, she said.
In Columbiana County, nearly 800 homes and businesses were without electricity this morning, Koch said. Many employes of the county were sent home today because power was out at the county courthouse in Lisbon.
It's unclear if court was to be in session today, county Commissioner Jim Hoppel said.
Power company officials have said it may be 2:30 p.m. today before power is restored, Hoppel said.
Also without electricity this morning was the county jail along County Home Road in Center Township. The lockup is operating normally using power provided by emergency generators, Warden Hank Escola said.
Police across Columbiana County, and the Lisbon post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol reported numerous trees and large limbs down. Lisbon police said traffic signals were out downtown. Robert Bycroft School on state Route 172 in Center Township, west of the village, canceled classes due to loss of power.
Mercer County
In Mercer County, Pa., the wind cut electrical services to about 8,000 customers. School was canceled in the Sharon City School District because there was no power to the junior-senior high school or Case Avenue Elementary. Penn Power spokesman Randy Coleman said this morning that he didn't know the specific cause of that power outage.
The Mercer County 911 center reported trees and limbs had downed power lines all over the county overnight. There were some road closures, but everything was open by 6:30 a.m., a spokesman said.
There were scattered power outages in Lawrence County this morning in about 125 to 140 homes, said Bart Spagnola, Penn Power spokesman. Spagnola said no major lines were damaged. Electric power loss was mostly caused by tree branches hitting power lines, he said. Crews were still working on restoring power at some of the homes by 8:30 this morning.
Wooster damage
In Ohio, the worst damage was in Wooster, where seven people were injured when Wednesday night's storm damaged a Rubbermaid plant, and in the Dover-New Philadelphia area.
"It just came right down the street," said Maureen Cannon of Wooster, whose home and car were damaged. "Someone's roof is in my back yard."
Wayne Beaver, a packer at the Rubbermaid plant, was working when he heard rumbling.
"When I looked up, the roof started caving in," Beaver said.
Paul Derhammer's newly opened car dealership building in Wooster was heavily damaged along with most of the 30 vehicles. Much of the loss was uninsured.
"I'm going to go home and say my prayers before I go to bed, and I'm just going to hope for the best," he said.
Wayne County Sheriff Thomas Maurer said almost every north-south street in Wooster, located 50 miles south of Cleveland, was blocked by trees knocked down by the eastbound storm.
At least three people were injured as the storm destroyed three homes and damaged four others two miles west of Dover and New Philadelphia.
The National Weather Service said it would inspect damaged areas today to confirm whether any tornadoes were involved. None was confirmed Wednesday night, but the Wooster damage indicated a possible tornado, said NWS meteorologist Mark Adams in Cleveland.