photo by: Ron Rittenhouse

High winds Saturday night bent and snapped power poles and transformers on the Collins Ferry road near Research Park.

MORGANTOWN — Just a few minutes of severe weather on Saturday evening were enough to disrupt power to tens of thousands of people, many of whom had to spend Easter without the benefit of electricity.

The fast-moving microburst ripped through north-central West Virginia, toppling trees, blocking roads and pulling down utility lines with winds gusting up to 70 mph.

By 10 p.m. Saturday, Mon Power reported that approximately 12 percent of its West Virginia customers were without power — nearly 66,000 locations in a line stretching from Parkersburg on the Ohio River to Hazelton near the Maryland state line.

Through the night, crews worked to restore power and clear debris from major traffic arteries, including W.Va. 7, W.Va. 857, U.S. 119, and Pa. 166.

Numerous reports were received of structural damage, ranging from holes in roofs to garage doors being torn off their tracks.

Power restoration

Mon Power issued a statement Sunday reporting that service had been restored in many areas.

“Crews have restored power to about 23,000 customers who were impacted by last night’s storms,” according to the utility. “They will continue working around the clock to restore service to about 20,250 customers who remain without power … We know that today is very important to many of your families.”

FirstEnergy reported that 16,243 of its customers across Mon County were still without power Sunday afternoon. Add that to the 3,421 outages in Marion County, the utility said, plus the 1,794 places in Preston still waiting for power to be restored.

In Mon County, the utility’s outage map listed major outage areas in the Morgantown area as Suncrest and Star City, as well as many neighborhoods near Cheat Lake.

FirstEnergy listed estimates of 10-11 p.m. Sunday for restoration power to most areas with 100 or more affected customers.

Assessing the damage

Sunday, meanwhile, was making for a big cleanup day, a MECCA 911 supervisor said.

As of 1:30 p.m., MECCA said, Cheat Road, Collins Ferry Road and Canyon Road were among the roadways still closed to traffic, as crews worked to clear downed trees and power lines.

Trees and power lines didn’t fare well during the weather onslaught with its gusting winds of up to 70 mph, the supervisor said.

At least 92 trees were uprooted during the storm, he said.

Another 14 were knocked into structures, he said, and 47 power lines were also downed. Crews responded to at least two structure fires, the supervisor reported.

The region was in the meteorological crosshairs of a solid line of thunderstorms Saturday night from south central Texas to New York state, according to AccuWeather.

Look for occasional thunderstorms today, the forecaster said, with winds up to 23 mph at times.

West Virginia University

West Virginia University Police issued a Community Notice after the storm swept through the area Saturday.

Teams with Facilities Management, University Police and others were working in coordination with Mon Power and additional outside agencies to identify and address storm effects on buildings, infrastructure and operating systems.

Multiple buildings on both the downtown and Evansdale areas of campus did not have power as of Saturday night.

The WVU Health Sciences Center experienced a brief power outage during which generators kicked on to provide back-up power to the building. As of 9:15 p.m., power was restored to the building and Facilities Management was monitoring the situation.

A roof was damaged in high winds at a barn at the WVU Animal Science Research, Education and Outreach Center on Stewartstown Road. No people or animals were hurt.

A fire was reported on University Avenue on Saturday night, but there was no threat to university property, personnel or students.

On Sunday morning, the charred remains of the flying WV logo topiary were visible at University Avenue and Patteson Drive.