At least 4 die in Pennsylvania as storm leaves 400,000 without power

At least four people were killed in Pennsylvania on Tuesday and hundreds of thousands of customers were without power after severe weather that had torn across the High Plains and Upper Midwest this week pushed into the Northeast and Canada.

David Lepinsky, 59, was killed after being electrocuted by live wires, according to the Pittsburgh Public Safety Department. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Another resident, Raymond Gordon, 67, was returning to his home when he was fatally hit by a tree after it blew over, according to the Ross Township Police Department near Pittsburgh.

In Centre County, Pennsylvania, a 22-year-old man was also killed after being electrocuted while trying to put out a mulch fire during the severe weather, the State College Police Department said in a statement.

In Greene County, Pennsylvania, a passenger in a car, Andrew Celaschi, was killed when a tree fell on top of it, the Pennsylvania State Police said in its statement about weather-related calls.

The storm “was tough on our city,” Mayor Ed Gainey of Pittsburgh said at a news conference Wednesday.

The National Weather Service office in Pittsburgh said Wednesday that it had crews in Wilkinsburg, a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, looking for potential tornado damage from Tuesday’s severe weather.

The weather service reported that “a large swath of destructive wind damage” was seen across the area as storms rolled through Tuesday evening, with gusts as high as 90 mph. The weather service added that the storms were “stronger than many of the smaller” tornadoes that the meteorologists “typically see in this region, but for a much, much wider area.”

More than 400,000 customers in Pennsylvania were without power as of Wednesday afternoon, according to poweroutage.com, which tracks outages nationwide. Duquesne Light Co. said that it was working to restore power to customers without service and that some customers could be without service for about five to seven days. The company was requesting assistance from utility partners.

The company said that the heavy winds had knocked down trees, broken utility poles and prompted more than 20,000 separate reports of hazards.

Officials in Allegheny County, home to Pittsburgh, encouraged residents to stay home as crews with chain saws worked to remove downed trees and clear debris from roads Wednesday. About 180 trees were knocked down in Pittsburgh, officials said.

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