The National Weather Service confirmed that a downburst with an estimated peak wind of 100 mph caused a line of damage in Bellefonte during the severe storm that battered Centre County on Sunday afternoon.
Downbursts are strong localized winds that descend from a thunderstorm and quickly spread horizontally at or near ground level, often causing damage similar to a weak tornado.
Thunderstorms in the afternoon on Sunday produced widespread wind damage in Centre County and elsewhere in central and western Pennsylvania. The National Weather Service in State College, with assistance from the Centre County Emergency Management Agency, surveyed a concentrated area of damage spanning 3.3 miles in the Bellefonte and nearby townships, according to a public information statement on Tuesday afternoon.
A line of squalls moved through downtown Bellefonte beginning at 3:01 p.m. on Sunday, according to the NWS. The downburst uprooted and snapped numerous trees, with notable tree and power line damage observed at St. John’s Catholic Cemetery, including a large tree falling onto East Bishop Street, and at Union Cemetery on East High Street.
The strong winds continued to move east out of downtown Bellefonte, damaging a structure housing 30 pigs on Scott Avenue in Spring Township and knocking down several trees.
Wind then caused significant damage on the 800 block of Jacksonville Road, “where the support beams for a large garage were lifted up and shifted about 15 feet downwind, resulting in a collapse of the garage and total structural failure,” according to the statement. Debris from the garage was “thrown upwards of 100 yards downstream along with knocking down several pine trees to the northeast as the downburst crossed Jacksonville Rd.”
Damage continued east on Jacksonville Road, where large trees fell on an SUV and a house, along with other sporadic tree damage on Lyonstown Road.
Wind damage ended just north of Interstate 80 at the Interstate 99 interchange, “where dozens of trees were uprooted or snapped off,” the NWS wrote.
Downed trees and utility lines caused thousands throughout Centre County to lose power, many for more than 24 hours. At the peak late Sunday afternoon, more than 11,000 homes and businesses in the county were without power, and more 300 West Penn Power customers locally were still experiencing outages as of Wednesday afternoon.
A few roads remained impassable on Wednesday.
Portions of Fox Hill Road and Fillmore Road near State College Regional Airport were still closed and access to the airport terminal was via Rock Road to Fox Hill Road. A temporary road was installed to provide access for Fullington Bus Company employees and Harvest Meadows residents through a joint effort by Centre County Airport Authority, Benner Township, Fullington, Eby Paving, Mount Nittany Excavating, Centre County Emergency Management and Berks Homes, according to the airport.
Centre County 911 took more than 350 calls between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Sunday, with additional calls for Centre County fielded by emergency dispatchers in Blair and Huntingdon counties.
At least one person died in the storm’s aftermath. 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.
