Times Observer Photo by Katie Miktuk Strong winds Saturday evening caused downed power lines and trees and power outages throughout the County. Cole Hill Rd. was blocked off where the power line laid across the road until crews arrive to service the power line. The downed line also laid across brush and over the creek.

Strong winds through Warren County left trees and power lines down and residents without power on Saturday evening.

According to National Weather Service State College winds reached upper 40’s to lower 50’s on Saturday, Jan. 11.

Other counties in Pa. that reached similar wind speeds included McKean/Bradford with a high of 47 mph, Potter County near Coudersport with a high of 49 mph and Elk County reaching a high of 46 mph.

The main issue associated with winds of these speeds is isolated power outages. Trees and tree branches are likely to fall, unsecured objects outdoors are likely to fly about, and high profile vehicles are at a higher risk for the steering wheel to pull.

Warren County residents reported multiple power outages and fallen trees on Saturday.

Times Observer Photo by Katie Miktuk Strong winds Saturday evening caused downed power lines and trees and power outages throughout the County. A fallen tree on Priest Hollow, Russell, caused a down power line and outages within the area. Cole Hill Rd. was blocked off where the power line laid across the road until crews arrive to service the power line.

According to a Warren Electric Cooperative, Inc.’s Facebook page update on Sunday, Jan. 12, their operators were getting “flood[ed] with calls” regarding outages throughout the County.

Two broken poles and a Penelec supply outage caused a power outage off of Akeley Rd. Linemen were at work around 5 a.m., Sunday, Jan. 12. A tree was also reported down on Priest Hollow.

The Akeley substation was back up and running around 1 p.m. Sunday restoring the majority of the power to the Akeley/Scandia area.

A broken pole was reported out of the Pittsfield substation causing an outage for a majority of the residents within the area. A crew finished replacing the pole around 4:30 p.m. Sunday.

However, one of the phases didn’t hold while replacing the pole and the crew was investigating the issue, according to the Facebook page.

A Warren Electric Cooperative, Inc. scouting crew found a broken pole on the main line south of Akeley according to a Facebook page update at 2 p.m. The pole feeds power to Cider Mill/Egypt Hollow, Scandia, Hatch Run area. An 8 p.m. update on the Facebook page reported the crew still working on repairs.

Warren Electric is hoping that that is the only complication keeping the area without power. According to the update, if there are more areas of damage, work may have to be picked up Monday morning.

“At some point, we are going to pull our guys off the road and send them home for some rest. We want to get everyone back on, but the reality is the damage sustained by some of our lines will make that impossible tonight,” said the 8 p.m. Facebook update.

According to the update, there was still a broken pole at the top of Teal Hill that will keep those residents without power overnight Sunday. There was also a broken pole in the Yellow Hammer area that will not be serviced until Monday.

There were still crews working on outage restorations in the Columbus/Wrightsville area, however it was still unknown what caused the outage.

Furthermore, there were still crews working on restorations in the Sugar Grove/Lander area as well as the Youngsville area.

During the event of a power outage, be sure to keep freezers and refrigerators closed to prevent food from spoiling, only use generators outdoors and away from windows to avoid potential carbon monoxide poisoning, do not use a gas stove to heat your home and disconnect appliances and electronics to avoid damage from electrical surges.

No more information on restoration of outages was available as of press time Sunday.