Storm leaves some without power

At its peak, Tuesday’s late afternoon storm left some 9,000 customers without power in Ohio Edison’s eastern region, including nearly 5,500 in northern Trumbull County and about 2,500 in northern Mercer County in Pennsylvania.

Checks with area police and fire departments, however, turned up no reports of injuries. Minimal property damage was noted.

Paul Harkey, Ohio Edison area manager, said most of the outages, particularly in Trumbull and Mercer counties, were caused by fuses that were blown by lightning strikes or when tree limbs were blown across power lines by high winds.

Other areas that experienced power outages included: New Castle, Pa., 496; Youngstown, 300; and Salem, 89. A few streets in Columbiana lost power for a while, but police officials there said this was not storm related.

The Warren Fire Department said lightning hit one house, but there were no injuries or serious damage.

Niles police reported a number of trees down. Girard Police Department said some lines were down, but that there were no power outages in that city.

Harkey said power had been restored to most customers by 8 p.m.