Storm Downs Trees,Takes Out Power In Belmont County
Emergency Officials Continue to Assess Damage
Photo by Kim North Trending
BRIDGEPORT -- Falling trees blocked roads and struck homes and vehicles, leaving thousands of residences without power in Belmont County as a result of Tuesday's early morning storm.
On Tuesday in Bridgeport, firefighters were out all night working to remove uprooted trees and limbs from roadways. Fire Chief Mark Subasic said there were a lot of trees down and a great deal of power line damage sustained from the storm.
"It was really bad on Kirkwood Heights," he said.
During the day, village crews worked to clear the roads and assist with damage.
Police Officer Brenton Boston said there were trees down on South Lincoln Avenue and Bennett Street that damaged multiple parked vehicles. At least two cars had broken windshields from limbs falling onto the vehicles.
Boston said multiple power lines were down, causing dozens of power outages in the village.
"There was a power line down across Main Street by Rent-A-Center and Just JAC's Drive Thru," he said, adding that American Electric Power was able to quickly restore the power to the area.
There was also a large outage on the south side of the community, including areas on Bennett Street, Whitley Street and Gould Park Road. As of Tuesday afternoon, that area remained without power.
Though there was some property damage, Boston said no injuries were reported.
The 100, 200 and 300 blocks of Bennett Street experienced strong winds that uprooted two huge trees _ one believed to be 100 years old _ and knocked down several others. South Lincoln Avenue was closed due to one of the uprooted trees, along with one in front of the post office at the intersection of South Lincoln Avenue and Howard Street.
The other uprooted tree -- in the 200 block of Bennett St. -- was lying on top of a car, while several cars in the 400 block of Whitely had windshields and a back window broken out.
One house on Bennett Street had some siding ripped off by the wind.
Chief Deputy James Zusack said the sheriff's department was pretty busy as a result of the adverse weather, with the majority of calls coming in overnight Monday into early Tuesday morning. He said the main concern in the aftermath of the storm was the amount of power outages.
Zusack said the other major issue involved blockages from trees being uprooted and knocked onto the roads.
"It's nothing out of the ordinary, that I know of," he said.
According to PowerOutage.US, there were nearly 8,000 customers without power in Belmont County on Tuesday afternoon.
The storm caused more minor outages and damage in Harrison County. Eric Wilson, director of the Harrison County Emergency Management Agency, said they were "pretty lucky" in comparison to surrounding counties where the storm was much worse.