Cleanup continues across multiple western Pennsylvania counties following severe storms

Storm damage cleanup is continuing across multiple counties in western Pennsylvania following severe weekend storms.

In Scottdale, Westmoreland County, the town's mayor declared a disaster emergency to speed up the cleanup process. 

"It's been a whirlwind," said Scottdale Mayor Lindy House. 

She said the storm brought down a significant number of trees and power lines. Her community has been rallying to clean up, she said. 

"As for myself doing the declaration, that is enabling us to make decisions faster and get critical resources to the borough," House said. 

Many parts of their borough are without power. 

"It's horrible. We drove around today, and some homes are still blocked out; everybody's got something," said Nancy Uber. "(We) thank God to be alive, we were scared." 

Neighbors were helping to remove a tree that had fallen in her yard. 

The nearby Mount Pleasant-Scottdale Airport in Bullskin Township, Fayette County, was damaged in the storm. 

When KDKA-TV visited on Sunday, we could see that a hangar had been destroyed in the storm. Three planes were damaged. Two planes were inside the hangar, covered in debris. One plane sat upside down outside the hangar, having been tossed around in the strong winds. There were no signs that cleanup had begun there. 

The airport's manager declined to comment, including on whether anyone was hurt at the airport when the storm came through. 

In Washington County, the storms tore a path of damage through the site used for the twice-yearly National Pike Steam Show,  a popular destination for fans of antique farms and construction equipment. The National Pike Steam Gas and Horse Association keeps the antiques in good working order. 

"There was only two people up here at the time it happened, and no one got hurt, but they said they opened the doors, and all they saw were trees flying past," said board member Roman Quinn. 

He said he initially had doubts about whether their upcoming show in August could go on as planned. 

"It's pretty significant [damage]. It took trees the size of this, and just blew them over, split them in half, you know? It's kind of scary," Quinn said. "Fortunately, we have a good group of guys that showed up. We've got about 50 people here today, and we got a good chunk of it knocked out."

The volunteers brought with them 10 pieces of their own construction equipment.

Trees fell directly on craft sheds that covered antique tractors and bulldozers. The sheds, which had just been built in the past few years, were damaged or destroyed. The sheds fell on the tractors below. 

"You can see some of the tractors got crushed from the big trees," Quinn said. 

Some of the tractors that were damaged date back to the 1920s and 1930s. Some are damaged to the point that they may be beyond repair. 

"It hurts a little bit," Quinn said. 

Helping clean up were people like Cole Ulam. He told KDKA-TV that his own power at home was out, along with that of many of his neighbors.

"It was really hot yesterday, so no power. And no AC unit, so I think people were sleeping in their cars last night, Ulam said. 

He told KDKA-TV that despite the loss of power at his home, there was no way he wouldn't help with efforts at the steam show site.

"This is my second home," Ulam said. "When something like this happens, this is a first priority."