Monroeville escapes major storm damage

The Monroeville area escaped major damage as a thunderstorm with high winds ripped through the area early Wednesday morning.

Two residential streets in Monroeville remained closed Wednesday afternoon as crews worked to replace polls and remove fallen trees.

Plum Street was closed between Orange and Orchard streets for wires that fallen due to windblown trees and branches around 2 a.m. Wednesday. Crews from Verizon worked in the area through late morning and the early afternoon.

Miller Avenue was closed between Speelman and Center streets as crews worked to remove a fallen tree and downed wires. The road closed around 9:30 a.m. and crews continued to work through the early afternoon.

Monroeville officials were not immediately available to speak on potential further damage in the area.

The storm brought a tornado through New Kensington with winds reaching up to 75 mph, downed trees and power lines throughout the region and property damage.

More than 30,000 Duquesne Light customers were without power Wednesday morning, including almost 3,000 outages in Sewickley and about 2,000 each in Glassport, Center Township, downtown Pittsburgh, Crescent Township and Robinson Township.

More than 9,000 Westmoreland County residents were without power as of 11 a.m., with Ligonier Township, Ligonier Borough and Rostraver among the hardest-hit communities, according to West Penn Power. More than 35,000 West Penn Power customers were without power at the peak of the outage.

Monroeville did not report any power outages.

Wednesday’s temperature for Monroeville was forecast to reach up to 66 degrees with partly sunny skies. Rain is predicted to return overnight with cloudy skies and a temperature reaching near 51 for Thursday, according to the National Weather Service in Moon Township.