Storms that hit South also smashed Pa. towns

WERNERSVILLE, Pa. - While most eyes have been on the devastating storms and tornadoes ravaging the South, towns and residents closer to Philadelphia have not been spared.

Powerful thunderstorms and at least one tornado tore across Pennsylvania yesterday, cutting power, downing trees and damaging property. One tree fell on a school bus in eastern Pennsylvania, but no students were hurt.

The National Weather Service in State College said the twister came down shortly before 6 a.m. near the Roundtop Mountain Resort, in Lewisberry in York County, downing numerous trees and lifting the front end of an eyewitness' car off the ground. Meteorologists categorized the tornado as an EF1, which is a twister with winds from 86 mph to 110 mph.

The Weather Service also dispatched teams to look for signs of tornado damage in Juniata County and the Harrisburg area.

A cold front came through south-central Pennsylvania about 4 a.m., with high winds and lashing rain that flooded many low-lying areas and basements. Though this same storm system left deaths and destruction its wake much farther south, there were no immediate reports of fatalities in Pennsylvania.

Seven counties activated their emergenc-operations centers and 13 provided damage reports.

Finn said that Cumberland and Northumberland counties had reported evacuations and that Lebanon County had set up a shelter.

Cars were overturned and buildings collapsed in Palmyra, a small town in Lebanon County just east of Hershey, and more than 4,000 customers were left without power in Dauphin, Cumberland, Perry and York counties, Harrisburg's Patriot-News reported.

The mayor of Palmyra issued a dusk-to-dawn curfew.

Jennifer Dellinger told The York Dispatch that she screamed when she saw the tornado and several downed trees, then fled downstairs with her family.

"It sounded like a freight train coming through our house," she told the paper. "It was awful. . . . My 4-year-old is still talking about it: 'My daddy's house is destroyed!' "

In Berks County, a tree fell onto a school bus from Conrad Weiser East Elementary School about 9:20 a.m., but the tree did not penetrate the roof or the windows and there were no serious injuries, Dennis Roule, assistant superintendent, told the Reading Eagle newspaper. Thirteen students were on board.

The severe weather forced the closure of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation's riverfront office center in Harrisburg. The center lost all its power and was closed all day yesterday, PennDOT officials said.

PennDOT also said that downed trees and wires, as well as flooding, forced the closing of several roads in northeastern Pennsylvania, where several hundred customers also lost power in the Poconos. The winds also damaged buildings in the area.