Man Dies After Contact With Downed Power Lines in Ferguson Township

Updated 5:44 p.m.

A State College man died from contact with downed power lines following severe storms on Sunday in Ferguson Township.

Gelin Tong, 23, was electrocuted after accidentally stepping on the wires at about 6:50 p.m. on the 200 block of South Water Street, according to the Centre County Coroner’s Office and acting township police Chief Shawn Morrison. Tong had exited his vehicle after stopping because of a fallen tree and began walking when he came into contact with the power line.

Tong was pronounced dead at the scene.

“Our hearts and thoughts are with the young man’s family,” Morrison wrote in an email.

Alpha Fire Company and Centre LifeLink EMS also responded to the scene. An investigation is ongoing.

Strong winds accompanying heavy storms took down trees and power lines throughout Centre County on Sunday, causing damage and widespread outages.

Centre County 911 reported that it took more than 350 calls between 3 and 7 p.m., and additional calls rolled over to emergency dispatchers in Blair and Huntingdon counties.

More than 11,000 homes and businesses were without power at 5 p.m. on Sunday, and thousands of outages continued into Monday. As of 12:30 p.m. on Monday, West Penn Power reported 3,600 customers in Centre County were still experiencing outages.

Ferguson Township Elementary School closed for the day on Monday because it had no power, and other State College Area School District schools operated on a two-hour delay. Bellefonte Area School District closed all of its schools because of outages.