Update: Allegheny Power crews work to restore power to thousands

Nick Malawskey

STATE COLLEGE — By Friday morning, the Circleville Road area had, in the words of one local resident, become a “disaster scene.”

CDT/Nabil K. Mark

Thomas Wright makes his way through fallen tree branches while walking along South Allen St. in State College, Pa., October 16, 2009. CDT/Nabil K. Mark

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Thursday’s snowfall, which set several records, pulled down trees and power lines at an alarming rate in the Centre Region, sending work crews -- municipal, private and those from utilities -- scrambling.

At one point, an estimated 12,000 residents in Centre County were without power as falling trees and tree limbs caused as many as 350 separate “outages.” By 7 p.m., the Allegheny Power Web site reported that about 6,500 customers were still without power. Some homes and businesses could remain that way through this evening.

“Many of the heavily treed neighborhoods ... have severe tree damage ... some of the secondary roads are closed due to trees that have fallen,” said Shawn Kauffman, Centre Region emergency management coordinator.

At 8 a.m. the COG Office of Emergency Management had declared a disaster emergency and asked residents to remain patient.

“There was a lot of activity during the night and it really was not until about 6 this morning that we got a good handle on how much damage there was,” Kauffman said. “So the process of removing of debris and restoring power will be lengthy.”

By mid-afternoon Friday, most of the area’s roads were opened to traffic. Cleanup of the fallen trees, downed power lines and other debris, was expected to take some time, however.

Several municipalities said it might not be until next week that the streets are returned to normal.

In the offices of AccuWeather and the National Weather Service, both in State College, meteorologists updated forecast models throughout the day. Their predictions -- more snow Friday night and Saturday, more possible power outages.

“(Saturday) morning, the chances are there will be another couple of inches on the ground,” said Andrew Mussoline, a meteorologist at AccuWeather.com. “So, some of the weakened trees may collapse.”

The Centre Region appeared hardest hit. The National Weather Service reported 3.2 inches of snowfall in Philipsburg by 7 a.m. Friday morning. In State College the total at that time was 4.7 inches. In Park Forest it was 6 inches and, at the top of Mount Nittany, 8 inches of accumulation was recorded.

Bill Syrett, manager of the Joel N. Myers Weather Center at Penn State, said it was hard to believe what had happened.

“All of us old forecasters were like: ‘No way, (that) doesn’t happen here,’” he said Friday around noon. “And while we’re talking, it has snowed 27 hours straight ... and that’s unheard of in October.”

In State College, the borough closed off portions of Garner and Patterson streets, Fairway and West Whitehall roads and Locust Lane because of fallen or snagged power lines.

Amy Story, the borough engineer, said broken trees littered the town.

“There’s barely a stretch in the borough that doesn’t have something down,” she said.

Some longtime borough public works crew members, she said, compared the tree damage to that caused by 1994 storms.

“Others are saying it’s the worst they’ve ever seen in the borough,” Story said.

The Red Cross, with the aid of the Salvation Army, opened a shelter at Park Forest Elementary School, and said it would remain open until all power was restored to area residences.

On the Penn State campus, personnel from the Office of the Physical Plant were busy throughout the day, removing tree limbs and preparing for an influx of 100,000 fans for the Homecoming game against Minnesota.

The university scrambled to identify off-campus parking after deciding saturated grass lots around Beaver Stadium — accounting for 20,000 parking spaces — could not be used today. Tailgating would be prohibited, they said, to maximize parking space.

“It’s a heavy, wet snow and makes it very difficult to deal with,” said Paul Riskin, physical plant spokesman. “But even so, we have the manpower, we have the shovels we have the heavy equipment ... we spend all summer preparing for these eventualities and we’re ready for it.”

Nick Malawskey may be reached at 235-3928. Reporter Chris Rosenblum contributed to this report.

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