Pittsburgh International Airport loses power after "extraordinary" storm causes surge, officials say
Strong storms swept through the Pittsburgh area on Thursday afternoon, leaving behind a trail of damage and even temporarily knocking out power at the Pittsburgh International Airport.
"Extraordinary" power surge hits Pittsburgh airport
The Pittsburgh International Airport said it experienced an outage after the storm produced an "extraordinary" power surge. In a social media post, the airport said a lightning strike hit Duquesne Light's system.
The airfield and air traffic control tower weren't impacted, so planes could keep landing and taking off, meaning no flights were canceled, a spokesperson for the airport said.
It took about an hour to partially restore power, and under 90 minutes to bring everything back.
"Because of our microgrid, we were able to restore that power much more quickly and potentially prevented a significantly longer outage," a spokesperson with the airport said in a statement. "Our microgrid and the traditional grid functioned as intended with safety features, the electrical breakers, acting to stop the surge before it could do damage to our systems."
Thousands without power
Duquesne Light, which covers Allegheny and Beaver counties, was reporting more than 35,000 power outages as of 6 p.m. West Penn Power was also reporting thousands of outages.
A message on Duquesne Light's website said crews are "actively responding" to outages. They're working to assess damage and give estimated service restoration times, the company said.
Storm brings down power lines, trees
Allegheny County Emergency Services said 911 received multiple reports of downed power lines and trees. The county asked drivers to be alert to changing conditions and said if a traffic signal is out, it should be treated like a four-way stop.
A fire broke out in Pittsburgh's Chartiers neighborhood, and while Pittsburgh Public Safety said the cause is still under investigation, it was likely caused by a lightning strike or overhead wires. No injuries were reported.
Thursday's severe weather comes as the area is still recovering from six tornadoes that touched down south of Pittsburgh on Saturday.
