At least 3 dead in Pennsylvania as storm hits US East Coast - UPDATED
Photo: WCCO
At least three people were killed in Pennsylvania on Tuesday as a storm system that brought severe weather on Sunday and Monday to the central U.S. continued on its eastward trek, causing significant damage and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of people.
According to Pittsburgh Public Safety, units were sent to the 1000 block of St. Martin Street on Tuesday to respond to reports of a man who was electrocuted by live wires. That man, who hasn’t been identified, was pronounced dead at the scene, News.Az reports, citing Fox Weather.
In a news release, Allegheny County Emergency Services said a second storm-related death was reported in the county, but details have not yet been released.
Another electrocution death was reported in State College.
According to the State College Police Department, first responders were made aware of a person who was electrocuted near a utility pole on University Drive. When crews arrived, they found a 22-year-old man who had encountered an active electric current while trying to put out a mulch fire.
That man was also pronounced dead at the scene.
"This tragic incident occurred during a severe weather event hitting the State College area, resulting in damage to many trees and utility lines," police said in a statement. "Public works crews are working to remove debris, and First Energy is working to restore power to the many customers affected by the mass outages in the Centre Region."
NOAA's Storm Prediction Center received hundreds of reports of severe weather, which included downed trees and power lines and even some roofs that were damaged by near-hurricane-force wind gusts.
Data from FindEnergy.com indicated that half a million customers throughout the region were without power from the severe storms as of Wednesday morning, with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania being the hardest hit.
Most outages were reported around the Pittsburgh metro, which reported a wind gust to 71 mph. Doppler radar indicated wind gusts could have topped 80 mph, with isolated, embedded tornadoes.
At least one person is dead as new rounds of severe thunderstorms are underway and potentially catastrophic flooding risks are brewing in the central and eastern United States on Tuesday.
Storms led to more than 700,000 power outages across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast by evening, News.Az reports, citing CNN.
Some of the most severe weather Tuesday evening was observed in southeastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania as high winds - with some wind speeds stronger than a low-level tornado - tore through the region, ripping trees out of the rain-soaked soil and roofs off of several buildings. A man in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was electrocuted by live wires Tuesday, the city’s public safety department reported.
At least two school districts outside Pittsburgh are closed on Wednesday and several others are delayed following reports of damage, according to CNN affiliate WTAE.
The threats come on the heels of Monday’s storms, which unleashed damaging wind gusts, hail bigger than baseballs, and tornadoes.
Severe weather impacted more than a dozen states Tuesday from Texas to New York, with Missouri being the hardest hit earlier in the day. More of the same is expected to unfold as multiple rounds of storms move through the Southern Plains, Mississippi Valley and Northeast throughout the evening.
A massive, 1,800-mile stretch of the US from West Texas to Vermont is within a level 2-of-5 risk of severe thunderstorms on Tuesday, according to the Storm Prediction Center. Two smaller but more significant level 3-of-5 risks are in place for parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York and portions of Texas and Oklahoma.
The first round of storms Tuesday morning impacted areas from northern Texas to southern Kansas and then pushed east into Missouri, but the storm system focused on western Pennsylvania in the evening.
Severe thunderstorm warnings and several tornado warnings populated across the state Tuesday evening, causing power outages to more than 566,000 customers as winds whipped through the area, Poweroutage.us shows. Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is located, reported “multiple regional phone system disruptions” as a result of the power outages, adding emergency services were coordinating with utility companies to get power restored.
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