WIND DAMAGES — A large tree toppled over in Friday’s gusty winds and brought with it several power poles along Main Street in downtown Weirton. MonPower crews were dispatched to the area, and traffic was turned around in both directions. Power disruptions were reported in several areas in and around downtown Weirton, but crews restored power quickly for most. -- Michael D. McElwain

STEUBENVILLE — The high winds that blew through the Tri-State Area Friday afternoon into early Saturday were unusual for our part of the country.

“It was definitely uncommon, if not a bit rare,” David Shallenberger, a meteorologist with the Pittsburgh office of the National Weather Service in Moon Township, said Monday.

He explained that our region experiences a lot of cloudy weather this time of year, especially as moisture comes off of Lake Erie.

“We actually cleared out Friday,” he said. “That allowed for more heating, and when you get more heating, you have a tendency to get higher winds. That’s why you were seeing winds of 60 miles per hour and 70 miles per hour.”

Those winds, in some cases, broke records.

Pittsburgh International Airport, Shallenberger said, recorded a 66-mile-per-hour burst, which set the record for a non-thunderstorm gust of wind there. A 70-mile-per-hour gust was reported in Zanesville, he added, while a 69-mile-per-hour gust was reported at the Allegheny County Airport and a 75-mile-per-hour gust was recorded in Dubois, Pa.

“Friday’s wind was pretty unusual,” said Rob Herrington, director of the Jefferson County 9-1-1 Center. “Normally, when wind comes through like that it comes through fast. It was unusual to see sustained winds like that.”

Most of the damage in Jefferson County is what you would expect from that type of storm — trees down and power lines down — Herrington explained.

Jeremy Ober, director of the Hancock County Emergency Management Agency, said those fallen trees and power lines led to additional issues.

“We had multiple power outages, and those outages were due to power lines being down across the county,” he said. “Those downed lines caused multiple brush fires. Every fire department in the county had gone out on brush fires.”

Firefighters were so busy responding to calls, he said, that at one point, departments across the Ohio River in Columbiana County were unable to provide help to Hancock County and officials in Hancock County were not able to send help their way. Hancock County firefighters were able to assist with a brush fire at the Pennsylvania line, he added.

Herrington said some units from Brilliant were able to assist firefighters with a brush fire in Wellsburg.

Greg Moore, EMA director in Brooke County, said Friday evening was busy, with numerous calls coming in about trees and power lines that had been brought down.

Ober said brush fires present unique challenges for firefighters.

“They are always difficult to access and always difficult to fight because of the terrain,” he said. “In this case, you had the hazard of downed power lines and not knowing where they were or if they were energized.”

All of that led to several busy hours at the region’s 9-1-1 centers.

Herrington said the Jefferson County center received 90 calls an hour during the peak of the wind and handled about 270 calls on Friday. The calls started to slow down around 8:30 p.m., he added.

Ober reported a similar situation in Hancock County.

“I know the 9-1-1 center was inundated with call after call about brush fires, closed roads and trees being down — they were as professional as they could be considering the increased call volume,” he said.

Herrington and Ober said that while the storm led to power and utility disruptions across the Tri-State Area, all but a handful of residents had seen their power restored by Monday morning.

Utility crews worked all weekend, and they did what Herrington described as an amazing job.

Ober praised the work of emergency service personnel in Hancock County.

“Our volunteer fire departments did an exceptional job, and the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department and municipal departments were working across the county — it was a great showing by the safety forces in Hancock County.