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Butler County residents still without power from storms Tuesday

A severe thunderstorm that rocked parts of Butler County on Tuesday has still left hundreds without power on Wednesday morning.

According to FirstEnergy — parent company of PennPower and WestPenn Power, as of 8:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, 422 of its Butler County customers are without power, while Central Electric Cooperative reported 125 of its county customers are still in the dark.

The outages are a result of strong storms that started around 11:30 a.m. Tuesday in the northern part of Butler County, according to Tim Cermak, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh.

As of 6:25 p.m., Butler County was under both a severe thunderstorm warning and a flash flood warning from the National Weather Service. The flash flood warning was in effect until 9:15 p.m., while the severe thunderstorm warning was in effect until 6:45 p.m.

The first round of storms hit in the Slippery Rock area, bringing heavy rain and wind gusts that nearly reached 50 miles per hour, Cermak said.

It was around 4 p.m. when the first set of storms wrapped up, Cermak said, but another batch of storms came through the county between 5:30 and 7 p.m.

Cermak said according to the National Weather Service’s wind tracking station at Moraine State Park, maximum wind gusts of 43 miles per hour were registered, but he believes winds most likely reached higher levels.

“It’s not uncommon to have a tough time to have accurate wind measurements,” Cermak said. “We had lots of reports of damage by winds that typically represent winds in the 60 to 70 miles per hour range.”

During the day Tuesday in West Sunbury, a PennDOT crew was requested by emergency crews to close West Sunbury Road at Boyers and at Branchton roads, after a tree reportedly fell down at Annadale Road.

In Cranberry Township, Rowan Road was closed due to flooding between Lexington Drive and Franklin Road, while in Adams Township, flooding was reported on Dobson Road.

Crews also responded in Mercer Township, where there were reports of trees on wires along William Flinn Highway.

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