— From Cresaptown to Romney, W.Va., two lines of rapid-moving thunderstorms swept down trees in their path and left thousands of people without power Saturday evening.
Allegany and Garrett counties were under a severe thunderstorm watch until 1 a.m. Sunday, while to the south, Hampshire and Mineral counties were faced with a storm warning.
In Allegany County, 1,544 Allegheny Power customers were without electricity when a transformer blew out during the first line of thunderstorms, a spokesman with the Allegany County Office of Emergency Management said.
The blackout left people from Bowling Green to Cresaptown in the dark, including inmates at the Allegany County Detention Center, where a spokeswoman said a generator was keeping the lights on until Allegheny Power crews could find and fix the problem.
People were also without power in Keyser, Westernport and Mountain Lake Park, according to the utility company’s Web site.
Downed trees were believed to have caused at least part of the outages reported in Kitzmiller, Swallow Falls, Barton and throughout Hampshire County.
A spokeswoman with the Hampshire County Office of Emergency Management and 911 said a transformer blew in Romney, while Springfield, Levels, Augusta and Capon Springs all had trees down.
In Mineral County, a tree fell into a house along state Route 972 in New Creek.
The fire department’s unable to get the tree off. They’re going to have a tree removal company come in since the tree put a hole in the roof, a spokesman with the Mineral County Office of Emergency Services and Homeland Security said. No one was home when the 6:33 p.m. incident occurred, he said.
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