Strong storms swept through the Pittsburgh area on Thursday afternoon, leaving behind a trail of damage and even temporarily knocking out power at the Pittsburgh International Airport.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Extraordinary” power surge hits Pittsburgh airport<\/p>\n
The Pittsburgh International Airport said it experienced an outage after the storm produced an “extraordinary” power surge. In a social media post, the airport said a lightning strike hit Duquesne Light’s system.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The airfield and air traffic control tower weren’t impacted, so planes could keep landing and taking off, meaning no flights were canceled, a spokesperson for the airport said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It took about an hour to partially restore power, and under 90 minutes to bring everything back.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Because of our microgrid, we were able to restore that power much more quickly and potentially prevented a significantly longer outage,” a spokesperson with the airport said in a statement. “Our microgrid and the traditional grid functioned as intended with safety features, the electrical breakers, acting to stop the surge before it could do damage to our systems.”<\/p>\n
Thousands without power<\/p>\n
Duquesne Light, which covers Allegheny and Beaver counties, was reporting more than 35,000 power outages as of 6 p.m. West Penn Power was also reporting thousands of outages.<\/p>\n
A message on Duquesne Light’s website said crews are “actively responding” to outages. They’re working to assess damage and give estimated service restoration times, the company said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Storm brings down power lines, trees<\/p>\n
Allegheny County Emergency Services said 911 received multiple reports of downed power lines and trees. The county asked drivers to be alert to changing conditions and said if a traffic signal is out, it should be treated like a four-way stop.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A fire broke out in Pittsburgh’s Chartiers neighborhood, and while Pittsburgh Public Safety said the cause is still under investigation, it was likely caused by a lightning strike or overhead wires. No injuries were reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It comes after the area was just hit by severe weather, with six tornadoes<\/a>\u00a0touching down south of Pittsburgh on Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n