Storms cause many outages in Pennsylvania and Ohio areas

The Penn Power area was hard hit by the storms.VINDICATOR STAFF REPORT
A series of storms accompanied by lightning and high winds toppled trees and knocked out electric power to about 25,000 customers in six counties Tuesday afternoon and evening.
Nearly all of those affected had their power restored by dawn today, according to Paul Harkey, Ohio Edison Youngstown area manager.
As of 7 a.m. today, 11 customers on Marmion Avenue in Youngstown were the only ones without power, Harkey said. Those 11 didn't report power out until 1 a.m., he said.
Among the hardest-hit communities were Greenville, Sharpsville, Sharon and Enon Valley, which are served by Penn Power, Harkey said.
"It seemed like it just wouldn't stop," Harkey said. "It had different segments to it," he said, noting that outages kept occurring in various places over several hours.
A chain of outages
The earliest outage reports were at 4:33 p.m. in the Greenville area, where more than 1,500 customers lost power. Fifteen to 20 minutes later, an additional 1,000 customers lost power in Zelienople, he added. Another smaller outage hit the Bloomfield area in northern Trumbull County at 8 p.m. Then, around 8:45 p.m., about 7,000 more customers lost power in the Sharon-Sharpsville area, Harkey said.
The six-county area includes Trumbull, Mahoning, Columbiana, Mercer, and Lawrence counties and part of Butler County. Half of Greenville was without power late Tuesday, but most of the power was restored by 10:30 p.m., said Dan Miller, a Greenville fire department engineer. No serious injuries were reported. The fire department responded to nine calls related to the storm, which lasted less than 20 minutes, Miller said. "There was a lot of damage over a short period of time," he said.
Among those calls was an situation in which a 2-year-old girl in a car seat and two women narrowly escaped serious injury when a falling tree hit a van they occupied in Riverside Park.
A tree blew over into power lines on Shenango Street behind a senior high-rise and hit a car and a pickup truck, and a man in the pickup truck suffered minor head injuries and refused treatment, Miller said. A tree fell across power lines and across Eagle Street, he added.
In Youngstown, about 100 customers lost power on the South Side after lightning apparently hit a substation at Midlothian Boulevard and Zedaker Street, Harkey said. A total of about 300 customers lost power in Youngstown, he said.
Also, high winds toppled a utility pole and live wires on Marmion Avenue near South Avenue in Youngstown shortly before 6 p.m. Police had to close the southbound lanes of South Avenue until the mess could be cleared.
Strickland's plea
Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland of Lisbon, D-6th, sent a letter Tuesday to President Bush asking that a federal disaster declaration be issued for Columbiana and Athens counties. Recent storms damaged homes and businesses in both counties, and caused an estimated $5.5 million in damage in Columbiana County alone.
If a federal emergency is declared, the affected communities may be eligible for Federal Emergency Management Agency's public assistance programs, which help communities repair infrastructure. In certain instances, Strickland said, some people may be eligible for individual assistance programs.
The Small Business Association also may offer low-interest loans to individuals and private businesses to repair or replace damages property and personal belongings not covered by insurance if a federal emergency declaration is made, the congressman added.