A severe thunderstorm rolled through Western Pennsylvania early Tuesday evening that the Allegheny County Medical Examiner said contributed to the deaths of at least two individuals and left downed power lines, damaged roofs and felled trees across the region.
As of 8:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, Duquesne Light Company reported more than 195,000 customers without power in Allegheny County, as well as more than 13,000 outages in Beaver County.
In addition, FirstEnergy Corp. — which operates locally as West Penn Power — reported more than 100,000 customers without power throughout Allegheny, Washington and Westmoreland counties.
Weather forecasts earlier in the day had telegraphed the possibility of inclement weather, but most residents’ first indication as to just how severe the evening’s storms would be came in the form of an emergency alert from the National Weather Service pushed to their mobile devices around 4:45 p.m.
“SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING in effect for this area until 5:30 PM EDT for DESTRUCTIVE 80 mph winds,” the alert read. “Take shelter in a sturdy building, away from windows. Flying debris may be deadly to those caught without shelter.”
Shortly after 5 p.m. Tuesday, the NWS Pittsburgh account on X began reposting dispatches from local residents. One post claimed to show a fallen limb catching fire on an electric transmission wire in Peters Township in Washington County. Another purported to show large, uprooted trees and heavily damaged vehicles in Pittsburgh’s Point Breeze neighborhood.
In the Beechview neighborhood, the storm’s strong winds appeared to have ripped the roof off of the locally renowned Fiori’s Pizzaria on West Liberty Avenue.
Demand for emergency services throughout the region spiked as the tempestuous weather system roiled the evening rush hour — at the height of the storm, Allegheny County Emergency Services reported seeing as many as 1,000 calls per minute to its 911 service, swamping the capacity of both the county’s emergency dispatchers and the regional phone carriers and systems.
Crews continued to work late Tuesday and into Wednesday morning to restore power and clear hazards created by the storm, which Duquesne Light Company called “unprecedented in DLC’s history.” In a Tuesday night press release, the region’s largest electricity provider — which serves more than 600,000 in Western Pennsylvania — urged customers to “stay away from downed wires, broken poles and other safety hazards.”
“Crews are working around the clock to assess the damage and establish an estimated time of restoration for all customers,” the statement read. “Safety is DLC’s number one priority so response times and damage assessments may be delayed to prioritize the safety of our workers.”
According to the National Weather Service, a chance of showers and thunderstorms is likely to persist through early Wednesday morning before clearing, giving way to sunny conditions before a chance of showers and storms return on Thursday and Friday.
