After the Storm

I was surprised this morning by a 6:45 AM robocall from Mt. Lebanon warning me that there are many trees and power lines down and many traffic lights out. The call announced that schools are closed today and advised everyone to stay at home.

Yesterday’s storm clearly hit my community harder than most in the area, although neighboring communities were also heavily impacted according the the local news from WDUQ-FM. The radio station put the number of Duquesne Light customers still without power at 13,000. (Duquesne Light is not the only power company in the area. Another 13,000 customers are also without electricity.) According to the Post-Gazette, the storm cut off power to 82,000 households and businesses. Rain seems to have caused little damage; high winds and lightning were responsible for most of the trouble from the storm.

I have food in the house, including cat food, and no pressing reason to go out today except for choir rehearsal tonight. It is not clear whether we will have rehearsal, but I suspect that we will if the church has power. I did see a large tree branch down in front of St. Paul’s yesterday, but there were no power lines nearby.

The branch blocking Syracuse Avenue just down the street that I mention in my last post has, surprisingly, been moved out of the street. It is not gone, however, just moved to the side of the road. (The street is bounded on one side by an undeveloped wooded parcel.) This can be seen in the photo below:


Actually, the tops of two trees seem to have been knocked off by the storm, as can be seen in this photo: