Centre County Continues to Deal With Impacts of Sunday Storm

Parts of Centre County were still feeling the impacts of Sunday’s damaging storm more than 24 hours after it ended.

Strong winds accompanying heavy rain took down trees and power lines in every corner of the county on Sunday afternoon and evening, causing power outages for more than 11,000 homes and businesses and leading to one death.

As of 8 p.m. on Monday, 1,491West Penn Power customers remained without electricity. The utility company “expect[s] to restore service to nearly all customers” in the county by 11 p.m. on Wednesday, “though most customers will have power restored before then,” according to the West Penn Power outages website.

The Port Matilda Fire Company is offering its station as a warming shelter. Those who need it should call 814-692-4074.

A power outage caused Ferguson Township Elementary School to be closed on Monday, and other State College Area schools operated on a two-hour delay.

Bellefonte Area School District closed all schools on Monday. While most are expected to open on Tuesday, Marion-Walker Elementary was still without power as of Monday evening. Superintendent Roy Rakszawski wrote in an email to families that he was “80% confident that power will be restored” on Monday night.

Storm damage left some residents in Patton Township without water, and the State College Borough Water Authority set up a fill site at the Alpha Fire Company Patton Township station, 2598 Green Tech Drive. The site was available until 8 p.m. Monday and will reopen on Tuesday for township residents who are without water service. Water from the fill site must be boiled before use.

Downed trees and poles also continued to cause detours on several roadways.

Most notably, State College Regional Airport’s terminal was only accessible via Rock Road to Fox Hill Road, as the southwestern end of Fox Hill Road remained closed at Bernel Road as of Monday evening.

At least one person died in the aftermath of the storm. Gelin Tong, 23, of State College, was electrocuted when he accidentally stepped on a downed power line at about 6:50 p.m. on the 200 block of South Water Street in Ferguson Township, according to the Centre County Coroner’s Office and township police.

Tong had exited his vehicle after stopping because of a fallen tree and began walking when he came into contact with the live wires. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Centre County 911 reported that it received more than 350 calls between 3 and 7 p.m. on Sunday, with emergency dispatchers in Blair and Huntingdon counties fielding additional rollover calls for Centre County.