A departing storm system produced wind gusts that blew the roof off a 150-year-old covered bridge in Union County and caused thousands of power outages across the Central Susquehanna Valley Thursday.
Meteorologist John LaCorte, with the National Weather Service in State College, said the tail end of a strong storm system that moved through the area Wednesday night produced wind gusts between 55 and 65 mph throughout the day Thursday.
The wind blew over small trees and snapped tree limbs across the Valley, knocking many of them into power lines and leaving thousands of residents in the dark for hours.
As of 8:15 p.m., nearly 2,000 PPL customers were without power, according to PPL’s Web site. However, less than a half-hour later, that number had been reduced to a little more than 300 after power was restored to about 1,500 customers in the Mount Carmel region, according to PPL spokesman Don Stringfellow.
Stringfellow said the company had been receiving a steady stream of calls about outages since 3 a.m. Thursday.
“It’s been pretty much all hands on deck to restore power,” he said.
The Red Bridge spanning Penns Creek in Hartley Township was supposed to undergo renovations in the spring, but now will need even more work after the wind blew the span’s roof off.
Township Supervisor Rick Kerstetter said the bridge was supposed to be renovated in the spring. Coukart & Associates, New Berlin, was handling the designs for the project, which was being funded by Union County. The span, Union County’s longest at 154 feet, has been closed to traffic since October 1998.
Elaine Winton, administrative assistant at the Union County Historical Society, said the bridge was built in 1855 and was last restored in 1958.
Firefighters in Snyder County also had to battle the elements, working quickly to extinguish a woodshed fire that was burning just 15 feet away from a home.
Beaver Springs Fire Chief Nick Weader said the wind gusts were endangering Darvin Snook’s home at 4306 Back Mountain Road, Spring Township. The fire started around 3:30 p.m. when a spark from an outdoor wood stove landed in the woodshed.
“The guys got a good, quick knockdown on it,” Weader said. “Pretty much saved the house.”
The shed and wood stove were destroyed. Snook was insured, the chief said.
Meteorologist LaCorte said wind gusts would reach between 20 to 30 mph today as the storm system continued to move off the East Coast, but would be in the 5 to 10 mph range by this evening.
He said there was also a slight possibility of light snow or cold rain today, with highs in the 40s and lows in the upper 20s.
-- E-mail comments to rscott@dailyitem.com.
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Wind smashes Union County covered bridge
Gusts rip off roof of 150-year-old span in Union
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