HARRISBURG, Pa. — Hundreds of thousands of people were left without power Saturday after high winds raked eastward from the Great Lakes region, leaving trees down and substantial property damage in their wake. Farther west, at least one person died in a massive wind-driven wildfire in Nebraska.
Nearly 450,000 customers were still affected by midafternoon in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan, according to PowerOutage.us, which tracks outages nationwide.
A 66-mph gust at Pittsburgh International Airport on Friday was deemed its fourth-strongest on record that was not caused by a thunderstorm, according to the National Weather Service. Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport saw winds hit 85 mph Friday afternoon.
Winds took down a gas station canopy in New Franklin, Ohio, and an auto parts store sign in Baldwin, Pa. Trees and limbs fell into or onto homes and cars from Cleveland to Pittsburgh. The roof of a school building in the Chicago suburb of Niles, Ill., was severely damaged by wind.
High winds fueled wildfires across a broad swath of Nebraska’s range and grassland, causing one death in Arthur County, officials said. The victim was not immediately identified and the sheriff’s office did not disclose other details about the death.
What state officials have dubbed the Morrill County fire has burned at least 735 square miles across four counties since Thursday. At least 12 structures have been destroyed, according to the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency.
Chelle Ladely of Sidney, Neb., said her home is currently safe, about 40 miles south of the nearest fire. But she worries for friends and family in the area.
“Smoke is filling the air and at night I can see the burn of the fires on the horizon,” Ladely said. “My father is a crop agronomist, and his company as well as other local farmers are all gathering their water trucks to help aid with the fires, and truckloads of bottled water and food is being supplied by our good patrons for our volunteer firemen trying to extinguish the blazes.”
Several other wildfires being pushed by winds of up to 65 mph burned an additional 225 square miles — for a total of more than 900 square miles — by midday Saturday. The strong winds have kept firefighters from containing any of the fires, the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency said. Gov. Jim Pillen on Saturday toured areas burned by the Morrill County fire.
In Chicago, thousands of revelers turned out to see the city’s namesake river dyed bright green and a downtown parade celebrating the St. Patrick’s holiday, despite the threat of snow and stiff winds that drove the wind-chill temperature well below freezing.
Dangerous winds are but one piece of a wild weather mosaic that includes heavy rains in Hawaii, triple-digit heat ahead in Phoenix and the return of winter cold to the Midwest and Northeast. Chicago was expected to approach the single digits by Tuesday, with Minneapolis seeing lows around zero.
Several Minnesota cities have already declared snow emergencies starting Sunday, when what could be the season’s largest snowfall is expected to hit. Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula are also in the crosshairs.
AccuWeather is describing conditions as a “potent triple-threat March megastorm” from Sunday into Monday.
“It’s definitely a very active weather weekend, that’s for sure,” AccuWeather senior meteorologist John Feerick said. “It’s a highly amplified pattern, which means you get a lot of extremes. Also, not just the Lower 48, but Hawaii’s getting hit hard right now with some very heavy rain.”
Feerick said people along the Wisconsin-Iowa border might see some ice as travel conditions become dangerous in large parts of the Upper Midwest.
Scolforo and Beck write for the Associated Press and reported from Harrisburg and Omaha, respectively.
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