By 10 a.m. Wednesday, Taylor said the number of people without power had been reduced to about 3,900. By late afternoon Wednesday, there were still pockets of customers without power, according to the FirstEnergy outage map.

Taylor said there were some people with roof damage, but the county didn’t receive any reports of significant damage from local management coordinators as of Wednesday morning.

“It was a bad storm, no doubt,” Taylor said, noting the city of Altoona was hit the hardest.

Altoona Fire Department Fire Chief Adam Free said the department handled 80 incidents of downed trees and power lines in a four-hour period from 6 to 10 p.m. Tuesday.

Jordan Beyer carries Rip, a 3-year-old Blue Heeler mix, that he just rescued from his pen Wednesday afternoon in the collapsed barn at his family farm in Munster Township. Beyer’s sister Emma Gruss comforts Rip after his overnight ordeal. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

Although Free wasn’t on the call, the department responded to a motor vehicle accident with entrapment in the area of 13th Street and Pleasant Valley Boulevard in which a driver reportedly hit debris, went airborne with his car and landed in a tree, Free said.

“I don’t know what the cause of it was. But we were able to extricate the patient pretty quickly from the vehicle,” Free said.

Free said the department was still getting reports of trees and wires down Wednesday morning, but the bulk of incidents occurred between that four-hour period Tuesday night.

Taylor said there were still some closed roads and traffic signals out of service Wednesday.

“But outside of that, things are getting back to normal,” he said.

An American Tower cell tower was downed along Sunset Road in East Carroll township north of Carrolltown on Tuesday evening. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

In Cambria County, over 23,000 people experienced power outages Tuesday, according to FirstEnergy.

The company’s power outage map showed that number was brought down to about 12,000 affected customers by Wednesday afternoon.

Barn collapse traps animals

According to Cambria County Emergency Management Agency Director Tom Davis, the bulk of the damage included a collapsed barn in Portage Township and a cellphone tower that blew over along Sunset Road in East Carroll Township, just up the road from the Dollar General store in Carrolltown Borough.

Jodi Beyer, a co-owner of the barn, said the storm came in at about 6:15 p.m.

A number of bucket trucks from J.W. Didado Electric staged at the Walmart Supercenter at 2600 Plank Road on Wednesday afternoon waiting to assist in the restoration of electricity in the area. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

The wind whipped across her property, physically moving the barn 10 feet off its foundation before it collapsed within seconds, leaving several animals trapped inside, she said.

“The wind and rain was just something I’ve never seen before,” Beyer said. “The barn was there one second and in less than 10 seconds, it was history. It totally just smashed down.”

According to Davis, first responders were there for an “extended amount of time” and were able to free some of the animals. But Beyer said her family lost at least four cows, one pig and some farming equipment — tractors, balers and a grinder/mixer — that were in the barn when it collapsed.

The family thought their dog, a Blue Heeler named Rip, didn’t survive the incident.

But Wednesday afternoon, when Beyer’s children, Emma and Jordan, were looking for some water for the cows that the family was able to save, Emma heard “just a small noise,” which turned out to be the dog.

Jordan Beyer was able to call out to the dog, crawl underneath the debris and pull it out of the rubble, unscathed by the incident from the night before, she said.

Davis said Cambria County’s 911 center received 1,400 calls within a two-hour span between 6 and 8 p.m. Tuesday. The county brought in additional staff to manage the volume of calls, which the staff did a “remarkable job” of handling, he said.

Davis said there were trees that fell against homes throughout the county, but there weren’t other reports of structural damages to homes “or anything too severe.”

Due to areas still without electricity, the Conemaugh Health System urged oxygen-dependent patients affected by power outages to take immediate action to ensure they have access to needed oxygen supplies.

Patients have been encouraged to contact their oxygen provider to arrange for additional oxygen tanks or liquid oxygen if necessary.

People who are experiencing shortness of breath or other respiratory systems are encouraged to visit an emergency room immediately for evaluation and care, according to the release.

Shelters, charging stations set up

Clearfield County Emergency Management Coordinator Scott Mignot said there were still about 10,000 people left without power Wednesday morning. According to FirstEnergy, that number was down to 5,905 by 4 p.m.

Mignot said the eastern parts of the county — the Karthaus, Frenchville area — down to Madera were the most affected by power outages.

Officials were still working to establish shelters and charging station locations in these areas for residents with life-sustaining equipment, Mignot said, adding information will be posted to the Clearfield County Emergency Management 911 Facebook page when it’s available.

Most of the damage in Clearfield County consisted of multiple trees, telephone poles ripped down from the wind and wires ripped apart, Mignot said.

Huntingdon County Emergency Management Agency Director Katie Unger said, outside of trees and wires down, there were no reports of structural damage in the county.

The 911 phone lines were down temporarily, “but that’s basically all that we’ve heard,” she said.

Winds topped 80 mph

According to Greg DeVoir, the lead meteorologist for the National Weather Service in State College, there were up to 80 mph winds in areas that experienced damage throughout the region.

“(The storm) was long lived and people are going to be recovering for several days. A lot of people are still without power,” DeVoir said, adding there were no credible reports of a tornado in the area.

“There may be some areas that get looked at to see if the damage is convergent, but nothing was showing up on radar that suggested tornadic involvement,” DeVoir said.

DeVoir said there’s a chance of rain again today and Friday, but current outlooks don’t show much likelihood of anything severe in the area over the next three days.

Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520.