Storm brings flooding, outages

Emery Street on New Castle's West Side was still closed this morning.
A late afternoon thunderstorm Tuesday caused flooding that closed a section of the Shenango Valley Freeway in Sharon for about 90 minutes, and downed trees that closed roads in New Castle.
Sharon Mayor David O. Ryan said water running down Myers Avenue picked up a lot of leaves and other debris and clogged a storm drain on the freeway around 5:30 p.m.
The westbound lanes of the divided highway were closed between Myers and Wengler avenues for about 90 minutes while work crews cleared the drain and debris, Ryan said.
The Mercer County 911 center reported a large number of trees down during the storm but said that it had no flooding reports and that no other roads were closed.
Greenville authorities reported some temporary street flooding but no damage, and the Pennsylvania Power Co. reported scattered power outages with only about 200 Mercer County residents without power as of 6:30 a.m. today.
In New Castle, Emery Street on the city's west side was still closed this morning, said Sharyn Critchlow, Lawrence County Emergency Management Agency director.
Critchlow said a family on Hillcrest Street in New Castle reported seeing a funnel cloud, but that was still being investigated this morning. She said the National Weather Service would look into it.
Downed trees, power lines
New Castle Fire Chief James Donston said firefighters were busy responding to calls about downed trees and power lines throughout the city. Highland Avenue was particularly hard hit, as was the city's west side. Silver Oaks, a nursing facility for Alzheimer's and dementia patients, was without electric service for about five hours.
Donston said an emergency generator restored power until Penn Power fixed the lines. No one was hurt, he said.
Donston said a tree fell on a house in the 1600 block of Delaware Avenue, and trees and power lines were down on North Mercer Street and Porter Avenue.