PITTSBURGH (NewsRadio 1020 KDKA) — High winds brought down trees and power lines over the weekend, leaving thousands in the dark.
Duquesne Light's outages peaked at over 100,000 outages late Sunday. That number hovered around 38,000 Monday morning.
Between Duquesne Light and West Penn Power, 84,000 outages were reported across the seven-county region.
Crews were unable to use lift trucks Sunday due to wind gusts, and at times Monday as the high wind advisory lasted until 7 a.m.
Companies say it could take days for all power to be restored.
The National Weather Service says the highest wind gust in the Eastern Region was in Snowshoe, W.V. at 88 mph. Pittsburgh clocked in with a high gust of 61 mph.
At 8:20pm last night Pittsburgh International Airport gusted to 61 mph. That is the highest recorded wind gust (not related to a thunderstorm) that has been recorded since the airport has been built in 1952.
— NWS Pittsburgh (@NWSPittsburgh) February 25, 2019For reference, winds of 74 mph or more that last for at least one minute are classified as hurricane speeds.
Many schools across the area delayed opening on Monday until the winds died down.
Concord, Manchester, Schiller and Whittier Schools in Pittsburgh closed along with Hosack Elementary and Ingomar Middle Schools in North Allegheny due to power outages.
___Joe DeStio contributed to this story.
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