Winds knock out power, cancel school

By Chris Rosenblum

As the sun rose, the temperature plunged.

Starting at 4:40 a.m. Wednesday, a cold front racing eastward dropped Centre County from 43 to 25 degrees in a four-hour span, said John Gresiak, an AccuWeather meteorologist.

But by the time it arrived, the swift front had lost some bite. In Pittsburgh, for example, the thermometer fell from 52 to 19 degrees in the hours before dawn, Gresiak said.

“Once it got east of the Allegheny Plateau, then some of that cold air started getting stuck on the western slope of the mountains,” he said.

Winds, however, remained strong. Just before 8 a.m. on Wednesday, University Park Airport recorded the day’s top gust of 49 mph, Gresiak said. The state high of 59 mph occurred at Meadville.

The high winds brought power outages, although Allegheny Power spokesman Doug Colafella said the outages in Centre County were minimal compared with areas to the west, with most occurring between 6 and 8 a.m.

At 8:30 a.m. seven power outages affected 71 Allegheny Power customers from Port Matilda to Spring Mills, according to Allegheny Power’s Web site.

One of the customers affected was Centre Hall Elementary School. Rob Pacella, the Penns Valley Area School District director of physical plant, said damaged lines down the street from school caused the outage at about 7 a.m.

Students waited on buses or in cars until school officials, after consulting with repairmen, decided at about 8:40 a.m. to cancel the day, said Brian Griffith, district superintendent.

“The building was getting cold rather quickly because of the wind,” Griffith said. “We didn’t want students sitting in cold rooms.” About 9 a.m., power was restored, but restarting the school’s heating system took another 75 minutes.

Griffith said a classroom aide rode on each bus to ensure students were picked up safely. Only four children out of 246 had to stay at Penns Valley Area Elementary School, and none waited past noon, Griffith said.

By noon, only a handful of people in Centre County remained without power, and Allegheny Power expected to restore electricity to those customers by mid-afternoon, according to its Web site.

Gresiak said today should be clear and sunny, with a high around 32 and not much wind.

Tonight, however, a storm moving from Texas should bring a mix of freezing rain, sleet and possibly snow, with precipitation lasting overnight and turning to rain Friday.

Chris Rosenblum can be reached at 231-4620.