Allegheny County officials discuss deadly April storm, plan for future extreme weather events

You likely remember the aftermath of April 29th’s storm — snapped power poles, downed trees, and damage all across our city.

>>> PHOTOS: Severe storms leave behind significant damage throughout Pittsburgh region <<<

On Wednesday, city and county public safety leaders met to discuss what they’ve learned about their readiness for the next storm. 

They say they started preparing two days before the unprecedented storm hit. 

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“It was two days prior to the storm date that we were communicating with our public safety partners, police, fire, emergency management coordinators,” Allegheny County Emergency Services Chief Matt Brown said. 

They were also communicating with the National Weather Service, which made a last-minute change to the storm’s intensity. 

“It was day of that they heightened the awareness from what they labeled level 2 to level 3. The primary danger was the high winds, but as everyone is well aware, no one could prepare for what that impact was going to end up being,” Brown added. 

The storm only lasted a few minutes, but in the following hour, Allegheny County received 6,700 calls for service. 

The biggest issues were downed trees that were tangled in wires. 

And in order to remove the trees from the roads, officials say there needed to be better coordination with power companies.

“We had lines down in those trees. So we could not send DPW units out to those areas to start clearing the trees until they were de-energized. And, to coordinate with Duquesne Light to make sure they are not re-energized.”

The other issue, according to officials, is that there’s not much they can do to prepare for the high winds the storm brought. 

“For a windstorm, there’s not a lot you can do. The bulk of the trees that came down were healthy trees that, if we went down the street to look at them, we’d think they’re perfectly fine.” 

We also know that Duquesne Light is still in the process of doing a review of their response to the storm — and once that is completed, they’ll be sharing the results. 

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