Severe storms dealing heavy rain and wind brought down trees and flooded roads in central Pennsylvania Saturday afternoon and evening, damaging homes and disrupting traffic for hours.
And as the storm cut power to thousands of local residents, emergency responders and utility workers hurried to clear debris and bring the area back to normalcy.
Earlier Saturday evening, forecasters at the National Weather Service warned of flooding across the region, urging central Pennsylvania residents to get to high ground to ensure their safety as heavy rain doused the area.
An earlier warning, urged residents to remain alert as severe thunderstorms were expected to deliver wind gusts of up to 60 mph and quarter-size hail stones. At that time, forecasters also warned of a chance of tornadoes in parts of the state.
Earlier Saturday evening, PPL Electric spokeswoman Carol Obando-Derstine said more than 7,000 customers were without power after the storm.
More than 5,000 of those customers were in Dauphin County — the bulk of them in the City of Harrisburg.
At that time, Obando-Derstine said she could not estimate when power would be restored to those customers.
“We are working as quickly and safely as possible," she said.
