Utilities work to restore power after another round of strong storms

Storms swept through Southwestern Pennsylvania counties Friday night with heavy wind gusts, rain and lightning, causing power outages in several areas of Western Pennsylvania.

Duquesne Light reported just over 750 customers still impacted by outages in Allegheny and Beaver counties, as of 12:45 p.m. Saturday.

As of 12:30 p.m. Saturday, West Penn Power reported that about 75 customers in Allegheny County remained without power, along with around 75 in Armstrong County and just over 150 in Westmoreland County.

Prior to Friday’s storm, Duquesne Light said it restored power to more than 35,000 customers from the storms Thursday night and early Friday morning.

Crews worked 16-hour shifts to restore the remaining customers without power, Duquesne Light said. The company said it expected all customers to have power restored by 10 p.m. Saturday.

The power company said it is ensuring that extra crews are available to address additional outages as quickly as possible.

Southeastern Westmoreland County had been under a severe thunderstorm warning until 8:15 p.m., with a severe thunderstorm that ended at 11 p.m., according to the National Weather Service in Moon.

It was a combination of high humidity and instability in the upper atmosphere in western Ohio that created the conditions for the severe thunderstorms, said Matthew Kramar, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Moon.

The heavy rain that drenched the region Thursday night dumped around 2 inches of rain on communities in northern Westmoreland County. Lower Burrell experienced 2.2 inches of rain, New Kensington had 1.9 inches and Leechburg had 1.95 inches, Kramar said.