WITH THE DAMAGE STILL EVIDENT. WE ARE ON THE CORNER OF PRESIDENTIAL DRIVE AND BABCOCK BOULEVARD IN MCCANDLESS, WHERE YOU CAN SEE AN ELECTRICAL POLE BASICALLY ALMOST COMPLETELY ON ITS SIDE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROADWAY. THIS IS FROM FRIDAY’S WINDSTORM. AND OF COURSE, THE ROADWAY RIGHT NOW IS CURRENTLY CLOSED AS CREWS ARE WORKING. NOT ONLY FIX THIS, BUT RETURN POWER TO THOUSANDS OF CUSTOMERS ACROSS WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA. THE RIPPLE EFFECTS OF FRIDAY’S WINDSTORM ARE STILL BEING FELT ACROSS WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA, ACCORDING TO AN OUTAGE MAP FOR DUQUESNE LIGHT IN WEST PENN POWER, MORE THAN 18,000 CUSTOMERS WERE WITHOUT POWER AS OF MONDAY MORNING. BOTH POWER COMPANIES ARE EXPECTED TO HAVE THE MAJORITY OF PEOPLE’S POWER BACK UP BY THE END OF MONDAY. OUTSIDE OF SOME LARGER REPAIR JOBS. BUT EACH HAVE FACED DIFFERENT CHALLENGES. OUR OHIO COMPANIES AND MOST OF OUR SISTER COMPANIES IN PENNSYLVANIA WERE AFFECTED IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER, SO THEY HELD ON TO THEIR RESOURCES, WHICH MEANT THAT, YOU KNOW, WE WEREN’T ABLE TO SECURE THOSE ADDITIONAL RESOURCES RIGHT OFF THE BAT FOR DUQUESNE, OFFICIALS SAY MORE STRONG WINDS ON SUNDAY SLOWED THEIR RESPONSE. WE CAN’T PUT BUCKETS UP IN THE LIFT TRUCKS IF THE WEATHER IS OVER OR IF THE WIND IS OVER 40 MILES AN HOUR, THINGS LIKE THAT. WE’VE SEEN DOWNED TREES BLOCKING ROADS, AND ONCE YOU GET ON SCENE, MAYBE YOU FIND OUT THERE’S A LITTLE BIT MORE DAMAGE. NISSAN SAYS THEY HAVE UPGRADED THEIR SENSORS, DECIDED TO CALL AN ADDITIONAL CREW SOONER TO HELP IN THEIR RESPONSE, AND MADE SOME INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS, WHETHER IT BE THROUGH TRAINING AND STAFFING. NOW, WHETHER IT MADE A DIFFERENCE. WE HAVEN’T STARTED AN AFTER ACTION REVIEW YET BECAUSE WE’RE STILL IN THE PROCESS OF FINISHING OUT RESTORING POWER FOR EVERYBODY. BUT WE ARE TAKING NOTES AND WE WILL HAVE THAT PROCESS JUST AS WE DO AFTER EVERY STORM EVENT, AND WE WILL TAKE LEARNINGS FROM THIS AND HOPEFULLY APPLY THEM TO THE NEXT STORM AS WELL, AND CONTINUE TO GET BETTER IN SERVING OUR CUSTOMERS. WE’LL CONTINUE TO KEEP YOU UPDATED ON THOSE LATEST OUTAGES RIGHT HERE AND ONLINE AT WTAE.COM. RIGH
Power companies give update as crews work to restore power to thousands following Pennsylvania windstorm
Updated: 12:55 PM EDT Mar 16, 2026
Crews are working to restore power to thousands of customers across western Pennsylvania after a windstorm on Friday caused significant damage.According to outage maps from Duquesne Light and West Penn Power, more than 18,000 customers were without power as of Monday morning. Officials from both companies have been working around the clock to restore service.”We believe that most customers should be cleaned up throughout the day today. However, there are some issues in the hardest hit areas, around Allegheny, Armstrong, Butler, Indiana and Westmoreland counties. That could trickle into tomorrow,” Lauren Siburkis, program manager for transmission communications, said.”The timeline that we had was that most of our customers back on by 10 o’clock tonight, and then I think we’re getting pretty close to hitting that threshold. There will be some, some smaller outages that are going to persist a little bit longer, whether that’s because of damage to private facilities that requires more effort or more extensive damage, that needs more work done in order to repair it,” Matt Neistein from Duquesne Light said. Both companies faced different challenges in their response efforts. For West Penn, it was their ability to call in additional crews. “Our Ohio companies and most of our sister companies in Pennsylvania were affected in one way or another. So they held on to their resources, which meant that, you know, we weren’t able to secure those additional resources right off the bat — to hit the ground running to assist our crews,” Siburkis said.Neistein explained that strong winds on Sunday further slowed their response.”We can’t put buckets up if in the lift trucks, if the weather is over or if the wind is over 40 miles an hour, or things like that. We’ve seen downed trees blocking roads, and then once you get on scene, maybe you find out there’s a little bit more damage or a different type of damage than you expected. So that changes things as well,” Neistein said. This windstorm comes nearly a year after a storm left people without power for days. Neistein said that since then, Duquesne Light has upgraded sensors, called in additional crews sooner, and made internal improvements through training and staffing. However, only time will tell if those changes had a positive impact.”We haven’t started an after-action review yet because we’re still in the process of finishing out restoring power for everybody. But we are taking notes, and we will have that process just as we do after every storm event. And we will take learnings from this and hopefully apply them to the next storm as well. And continue to get better in serving our customers,” Neistein said.
ALLEGHENY COUNTY, Pa. —
Crews are working to restore power to thousands of customers across western Pennsylvania after a windstorm on Friday caused significant damage.
According to outage maps from Duquesne Light and West Penn Power, more than 18,000 customers were without power as of Monday morning. Officials from both companies have been working around the clock to restore service.
“We believe that most customers should be cleaned up throughout the day today. However, there are some issues in the hardest hit areas, around Allegheny, Armstrong, Butler, Indiana and Westmoreland counties. That could trickle into tomorrow,” Lauren Siburkis, program manager for transmission communications, said.
“The timeline that we had was that most of our customers back on by 10 o’clock tonight, and then I think we’re getting pretty close to hitting that threshold. There will be some, some smaller outages that are going to persist a little bit longer, whether that’s because of damage to private facilities that requires more effort or more extensive damage, that needs more work done in order to repair it,” Matt Neistein from Duquesne Light said.
Both companies faced different challenges in their response efforts. For West Penn, it was their ability to call in additional crews.
“Our Ohio companies and most of our sister companies in Pennsylvania were affected in one way or another. So they held on to their resources, which meant that, you know, we weren’t able to secure those additional resources right off the bat — to hit the ground running to assist our crews,” Siburkis said.
Neistein explained that strong winds on Sunday further slowed their response.
“We can’t put buckets up if in the lift trucks, if the weather is over or if the wind is over 40 miles an hour, or things like that. We’ve seen downed trees blocking roads, and then once you get on scene, maybe you find out there’s a little bit more damage or a different type of damage than you expected. So that changes things as well,” Neistein said.
This windstorm comes nearly a year after a storm left people without power for days.
Neistein said that since then, Duquesne Light has upgraded sensors, called in additional crews sooner, and made internal improvements through training and staffing.
However, only time will tell if those changes had a positive impact.
“We haven’t started an after-action review yet because we’re still in the process of finishing out restoring power for everybody. But we are taking notes, and we will have that process just as we do after every storm event. And we will take learnings from this and hopefully apply them to the next storm as well. And continue to get better in serving our customers,” Neistein said.