Cleanup under way after winds, outages plague the Valley

Wind gusts that reached near 70 mph uprooted trees and downed power lines overnight, leaving 118,000 without electric at the peak of the storm in the Youngstown-Akron-Western Pennsylvania area, said Paul Harkey, First Energy spokesman.

As of 9 a.m. today, 33,000 were still without power, with 15,000 of those customers in the Youngstown/Mahoning County service area, he said. A big tree that uprooted near the Lincoln Park substation about 11 p.m. Wednesday plunged Campbell into darkness until 3 a.m.

Harkey said roughly 4,000 are without power in Mercer County, 5,000 in the New Castle area and 9,000 in the Salem area. In Trumbull County, about 500 were without power in the Warren area and 1,000 in and around Kinsman, Harkey said.

Most customers should see their service restored by Saturday, the remaining by Sunday morning.

Mahoning County workers were seen earlier today clearing a tree that was felled by heavy winds early Thursday morning, taking down power lines and blocking Indianola Road in Boardman.

Chuck Malagisi spent Thursday morning looking over a large pine tree that fell in the yard of his mother Clara Vanderhoof's yard on Trenholm Road in Boardman. When the tree fell Wednesday night, Malagisi said the wind sounded like a train. The tree missed the house but landed on power lines.

The storm brought down a carport at the Northbury Colony apartment complex on Robert Lane Northeast off of Reeves Road in Warren Wednesday night.

Witnesses reported the car port lifted up and dropped back down onto about eight vehicles at approximately 8 p.m.

For the owners of the vehicles still stuck under the structure Thursday morning, the hassle of not having use of their car would be just one problem. Most of vehicles were also dented, broken and in need of repair.

“You know what [ticked] me off? I just paid it off Monday,” said Duane Armstrong of his 2002 Mitsubishi Lancer trapped under the car port.

For details, see Friday's Vindicator or continued coverage throughout the day on www.vindy.com.