6 injured in Fayette County tornado amid early Friday morning damage, weather service gives storm assessment

Aug. 25—Homes, trees, power lines, and a Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park resort and campground were damaged early Friday morning when strong thunderstorms and a tornado moved through Southwestern Pennsylvania.

The National Weather Service confirmed in a report that a tornado with winds peaking at 120 miles per hour passed through the Springfield Township region of Fayette County at around 2:30 a.m.

Six people were injured as the tornado blew through.

Jason Frazier, meteorologist with NWS Pittsburgh, said the storm was an at least EF-2 intensity tornado.

An EF-2 tornado has wind speeds of 111-135 miles per hour.

The last EF-2-intensity or greater tornado in Fayette County was in 1998, and the most recent tornado of any kind in Fayette County was an EF-1-intensity storm in 2021, the weather service said.

The National Weather Service's survey found extensive tree damage and minor structural damage beginning northwest of the community of Mill Run along Hampton Road, continuing across Route 381 for about two miles and ending along Turkey Foot Road.

The tornado tore through the Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park campground, tossing trees onto RVs, cabins, shelters, and structures. Across Route 381, the tornado tore roofs from outbuildings and rolled a mobile home over a vehicle.

Severe thunderstorms with winds reaching upwards of 90 miles per hour also damaged parts of South Park, Bethel Park and Baldwin around 1:50 a.m. No signs of a tornado were seen, but trees and power lines were snapped and some windows were broken.

Power outages

As of 7 p.m. Friday, Duquesne Light reported 785 customers still remained without power across Southwestern Pennsylvania, including about 60 in Penn Hills, 362 in Pleasant Hills and more than 200 in Hanover, Beaver County.

First Energy reported about 2,600 outstanding power outages in Allegheny County, including roughly 530 in Jefferson Hills and 1,344 in South Fayette .

About 2,084 of the utility's customers in Westmoreland County were without power, including over 960 in Cook Township and 380 in Donegal Township.

First Energy had 7,548 customers without service in Fayette County, including more than 1,400 in Dunbar.

Shannon Hefferan, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Moon Township, reported a tree had fallen on a house along Shamrock Drive in Hampton.

No injuries were reported when a tree fell on another house at about 6 a.m. in the 300 block of Long Road in Penn Hills, according to an Allegheny County 911 dispatch supervisor.

The village of Mill Run and surrounding areas of Springfield and Saltlick townships in Fayette were among the hardest-hit locales in the region.

Shortly before 3 a.m., a residential trailer fell off its supporting blocks along Fairmont Road near Mill Run, trapping several people inside, said Susan Griffith, public information officer for the Fayette County Emergency Management Agency.

In about an hour, she said, the occupants were rescued and at least two of them were taken to a local hospital: a child with an injured limb and an adult injured by glass and debris. The displaced residents are staying with family members, Griffith said.

At a nearby campground, at least one person was transported for hospital treatment of non-life-threatening injuries, Griffith said.

"We had trees down on campers and small cabins," she said. "The great difficulty was the fire department being unable to get to them because of the trees being down."

PennDOT reported at midday that flooding caused closure of a road in Ligonier Township — Route 381 (Steeple Crossing) between Route 30 and Club Stable Road. It had reopened by 4 p.m.

Flooding concerns prompted the 2 a.m. closure of the Mansfield Bridge in McKeesport, Hefferan said. The bridge had reopened by 5:30 a.m., according to Allegheny County 911.

Elsewhere at about 2 a.m., firefighters rescued a driver from a car that had become disabled in high water at Universal and Stotler roads in Penn Hills. The water receded after debris was cleared from a storm drain, according to the Penn Hills No. 7 Volunteer Fire Company.

South Park School District announced Friday's classes were canceled because of power outages and hazardous driving conditions.

The storms quickly dumped between 1 and 2 inches of rain in some isolated areas of the region, Hefferan said. The storms generated winds of up to 75 mph as they moved through from Cleveland, according to Hefferan.

"As it came through our area, it still had some intensity, but it was dying down a bit," she said at about 5:30 a.m. "Everything has died down now.

"For the next few days, it looks pretty dry."

Jeff Himler is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Jeff by email at jhimler@triblive.com or via Twitter .