Local

Storms knock out power, cause flooding; More expected today

PITTSBURGH — Several powerful thunderstorms hit Pittsburgh and the surrounding areas Wednesday causing power outages and storm damage.  Channel 11 meteorologist Scott Harbaugh says more storms are expected Thursday.

Today's storms, much like Wednesday, will be capable of dropping heavy amounts of rain in a short period of time.  The stronger storms will drop one to two inches of rain in less than an hour.  Wind gusts to 60 mph and one-inch sized hail will also be possible.

Several waves of showers and storms will continue to move along a stationary front draped across the region through later in the day Friday.  There will be several hours of dry weather in between each round of rain.  The stationary front is forecast to move south of the area Friday night allowing for a dry, less humid weekend.

One of the main problems caused by Wednesday's storms was flooding. As dry as the ground was , it led to a lot of runoff, which, in turn, led to flooding.

The strong rains caused a mudslide near a construction site near Route 19 in Wexford. Officials said the slide was contained and crews were able to begin the cleanup process.

Authorities said Route 51 in Rostraver was also experiencing problems due to the weather. Officials said several branches fell onto the road and slowed traffic.

Hookstown resident Carole Meute said she was driving to work when she passed several trees down and power lines severed. But when the rain picked up she couldn’t see anything a tree fell on her car just outside of South Side High School.

Meute said her car was damaged and a good Samaritan pulled over and helped her.

“I couldn’t even get out of the driver’s side because the car was smashed by the tree,” Meute said.

Dispatchers from Beaver County 911 said there are several reports of trees and power lines down around the area and crews are working to fix as many as they can as quickly as possible.