High winds knock out electricity
The worst of the storm appears to have missed the Mahoning Valley.
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
High winds Saturday afternoon and evening toppled trees and blew branches over power lines in many areas in Northeast Ohio and Northwest Pennsylvania, causing power outages for several hundred customers and damaging parked vehicles.
However, no serious injuries were reported because of the storm, which hit other areas in Ohio much harder, according to Ohio Edison spokesman Paul Harkey. Power had been restored in most local areas by mid-evening.
Despite the significant number of outages locally, it appears the worst of the storm missed Trumbull, Mahoning and Columbiana counties in Ohio, and Lawrence and Mercer counties in Pennsylvania.
Local outages
Harkey reported 35 outages for the Salem and Alliance areas, only four in Mahoning County, and 19 in Trumbull County. That compares with 25,000 in the Cleveland area and some 9,000 outages in Akron and the areas north of that city, he said.
Bart Stagnola, spokesman for Penn Power in Lawrence County and parts of Butler, Beaver and Allegheny counties, said there were about 100 outages at the peak in his area. Most of those were caused by branches over lines. Power had been restored in most instances by 9 p.m., Stagnola said.
Stagnola said, however, that as of about 9 p.m., some 675 customers in Mercer County were without power, most of them in the Jamestown and Stoneboro areas.
No information was available on when all power would be restored, although Ohio Edison and Penn Power spokesmen said crews were out in force.
alcorn@vindy.com