Pittsburgh-area residents begin clean-up process after severe storms rip through region
Severe storms ripped through the Pittsburgh area on Tuesday evening, leaving a path of destruction in their wake.
At least three deaths have been reported because of the severe weather, and thousands of residents remain without power nearly 24 hours after the storms arrived.
Now, residents across several municipalities are left to pick up the pieces and begin cleaning up what damage may lie inside and outside their homes.
Forest Hills Borough declares state of emergency
The Borough of Forest Hills declared a state of emergency Tuesday night after the severe storms.
The weather was so extreme that a tree branch had pierced through a woman's home.
"A tree branch had gone down through the roof and into her living room," neighbor Jim Macek said.
That branch was only a small part of a big problem.
"Naturally, you worry about your neighbors," Macek said.
"We went to knock on the door [and] saw this disaster," neighbor Matt Hartman said.
Hartman navigated through a mess to get the woman who lives there out. It wasn't necessarily easy.
"Could not get her out the door initially because the porch had collapsed a little bit," he said. "We took the glass out of the storm panel [and] got her outside okay."
He says the woman avoided injuries. She also had a place to stay for the night.
"I'm sure she had a rough night sleeping, but I'm sure she's doing okay," Hartman said.
On Ardmore Boulevard, there were no colors to direct drivers on Wednesday morning as the storm knocked out the traffic signals.
People who live in the neighborhood say the strength of this storm was uncanny.
"We've been here 5 years, never heard the wind so severe," Hartman said.
"There's a lot of work, a lot of cleanup," Macek said. "And we're just going to jump in together, and try and get it cleaned up."
The borough's mayor said in a Facebook post that police, fire, and the department of public works crews are working to clear roads and get things back up and running.
Severe weather tosses tree onto busy roadway in Squirrel Hill
On Shady Avenue in Squirrel Hill, a large tree blocked traffic on a busy roadway.
As Zehavit Kirshenboim and her 16-year-old daughter Einvav Israel looked at the ginormous spruce outside their home Wednesday morning, they were amazed by what Mother Nature can do.
"Makes you humble now to feel the strong power of nature," Kirshenboim said.
Less than 24 hours earlier, Israel was in her room when the lights started to flicker.
She went to her window and saw branches swinging and then a bright flash and sparks.
"The tree just falls to the other side, and it hits the cables, and they fell onto the ground," Israel said.
The force completely uprooted the trunk, lifting some of the sidewalk on Shady Avenue by Marlborough. Immediately, the power went out, and Israel ran downstairs to tell her parents.
"It was really, like, this huge tree falls onto the ground, and you can see, like, all of it," Israel said.
"I thought immediately, I hope no one is under that tree," Kirshenboim said.
They tried to call 911 but couldn't get through. Pittsburgh Public Safety reported some system outages. Eventually, first responders showed up along with utility crews.
They said it was like something they saw in the movies, but they're grateful, knowing it could have been much worse.
"We have such luck that it didn't fall our way or on the neighbors or hit anyone or any car or anything," Kirshenboim said.
High winds topple a tree onto a car with a Penn Hills woman inside
According to the National Weather Service, those severe winds were so strong that the damage they caused was comparable to tornadoes.
On Poe Drive in Penn Hills, the severe winds toppled a tree that took down power lines and fell onto two cars, one of which Cynthia Ames was inside at the time it collapsed.
"Yeah, I've never seen something like this. That's both of our cars totaled, they're totaled," said Ames.
She said it happened when she got inside her son's Pontiac G-5 to roll the car window up for him, but the storm rolled in quickly.
"And then, I swear I could feel the car lift a little bit, and then just 'boom,' and I didn't know what happened. I thought a branch fell down."
It was more than just one branch.
"The car keeps bouncing, that tree kept bouncing on it, and when I was in it, I could hear the tires pop and just all the windows crashed," Ames described. "911 wasn't answering, the neighbors were calling. Everyone was calling, and no one was answering for hours."
According to Ames, her son's friends were able to pull her out of the crushed car.
Even though she was out of the car, she wasn't without trouble, and like many others in the neighborhood, she was without power.
Now, it's nothing but cleanup and recovery for the Penn Hills community and Ames, who is without transportation, but is feeling lucky to be alive.
"I just finally got some substantial employment, but I need my car to do it, and there it is," Ames said.
Crews making headway in Westmoreland County
In Mount Pleasant, winds tore apart a movie screen at the Evergreen Drive-In Theatre, where they were just getting ready to open for their 78th season this weekend.
There were downed trees all over the county, including trees into homes and cars, along with trees on top of and blocking roadways.
An old pine tree near 207 West Newton Street in Greensburg didn't block the road exactly, but it became uprooted and was leaning on another tree over the road, endangering the public.
Ironically, this tree was blown over just feet from Jason Rigby's insurance office.
"We are lucky it didn't head towards our building," said Rigby. "But the bigger concern would be, that it is being held up right now by another tree and if that tree were to let go, it would fall onto the road and then there's a doctor's office over across the road were the tree would affect that building."
Greensburg Fire Chief Thomas Bell and his crew have closed off West Newton Street until the tree can be safely cut down.
He says it has been a long 24 hours for first responders and utility crews and they are working to fix things as fast as they can.
"If you do have any issues, just be patient," Chief Bell said. "That's the biggest thing. You know, be patient with West Penn; we did have a lot of power lines down, cable lines with all these trees that came down. Just patience is the biggest thing."
Crews across Westmoreland County are making a lot of headway with clean up, but if you see roads that you normally travel are closed, obey the signs and find another route.
