Cleanup continues after storms topple trees, knock out power in Western Pa.

The tiniest victims of Wednesday afternoon’s storms that toppled two towering trees along Harrison’s stately Carlisle Street may have been found by the steps to Tina Kahilainen’s porch.

While Kahilainen’s home of seven years had damage to its roof and at least one bedroom, a robin’s nest — likely once in the fallen elm — was found on the ground by her porch Thursday morning.

The mother was seen still trying to care for her young, despite the presence of people and all the noisy equipment being used in the cleanup.

Kahilainen placed the nest and the babies on her porch, hopeful the mother would find them there.

She was at work in Monroeville on Wednesday when strong storms came through, toppling one tree that hit her home in the 1200 block of Carlisle. Another massive tree fell on the home of her neighbor, Gary George, who called her.

“I came straight back. I didn’t know what to expect,” said Kahilainen, who shares her home with two cats and a dog. “I was worried about my pets most of all.”

The severity of the storms, including the intensity of the wind and amount of rain, varied wildly across the region, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Jason Frazier.

While the service measured only about a tenth of an inch of rain at its office in Moon Township, 2.27 inches was recorded in Bethel Park. Frazier said there was potentially more than that in Bridgeville, where residents of four houses had to be evacuated because of flooding, but the weather service did not have a measurement for how much rain fell there.

A 58 mph wind gust was recorded at the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Latrobe, while a wind speed of 36 mph was measured at the Pittsburgh-Butler Regional Airport in Butler County, Frazier said.

There were potentially stronger wind gusts throughout the region, he said. It brought trees down throughout the area, contributing to tens of thousands of Duquesne Light and West Penn Power customers losing electric service.

In Harrison, crews with Beaver Jack Tree Service were on Carlisle Street late into the night and back early Thursday morning working in light rain to remove the trees and their uprooted stumps and roots.

Despite the damage, George and Kahilainen both spent the night in their homes.

George said the dormer atop his home took the brunt of the damage, and he had a leak in a bedroom.

“I was lucky to have people come immediately to get the trees off my house and my neighbor’s,” he said.

George has lived there since 1964. He said he’s seen trees blow over before, but never on his side of tree-lined Carlisle. He speculated that six or eight trees cut down across the street because of disease had been a buffer for those on his side for decades.

George said he was told that the tree at the opposite side of his front yard, as tall as the one that fell, had been seen lifting. He said its stability will have to be checked.

A native of Leechburg, Kahilainen said she moved back to the area from California, and bought a home on Carlisle in part because of its scenic and historic trees.

But it wasn’t the view she was admiring the most about her neighborhood on Thursday.

“The outpouring from the community — everybody was so supportive,” she said.