Photos: Wind cuts power to hundreds of thousands of people from the Midwest to the Northeast
A powerful storm blasted the Midwest to the Northeast with high winds that toppled trees and cut power to hundreds of thousands of people on Sunday.
High wind warnings and wind advisories were issued in parts of central Ohio.
"As the same storm that produced the blizzard conditions in the Plains and the severe weather in the South continued to strengthen, strong winds lashed the Midwest on Sunday. These winds swept eastward and whipped through the Northeast on Monday, but will begin to subside through Tuesday," AccuWeather Meteorologist Kristina Pydynowski said.
As of early Tuesday morning, more than 130,000 customers were still without power in Michigan, Ohio, New York, West Virginia and Pennsylvania, according to PowerOutage.us.
At the height of the storm, 170,000 customers had lost power in Ohio.
An 86-year-old woman was rescued from her home in State College, Pennsylvania, after becoming trapped when a tree, roughly 100 feet tall, fell on it.
Officials with Alpha Fire Company said the woman was freed after a 50-minute extraction process. She was taken to a local hospital where she is in stable condition.
A tree damaged a home in State College, Pennsylvania, Monday Feb. 25, 2019. (Photo/Alpha Fire Company)
A partial building collapse was reported in Syracuse, New York, late Sunday night during the high winds, according to cnycentral.com.
Strong winds caused this canopy collapse at a gas station in Bradley, Illinois, on Sunday, Feb. 24, 2019. (Twitter/Bradley Police Department)
"Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Indianapolis and Pittsburgh are among the many communities in the Midwest that endured gusts of 50 to 66 mph," Pydynowski said.
On Saturday night, wind gusts exceeded 65 mph in St. Louis, toppling trees and resulting in tens of thousands of power outages. Winds gusted to 62 mph in Altoona, Pennsylvania, late Sunday evening.
The Cleveland Hopkins Airport recorded a 67-mph wind gust on Sunday. The National Weather Service office in Cleveland also reported that the Fairport Harbor Lighthouse measured 61 mph wind gusts.
Strong, persistent winds blowing across Lake Erie shoved ice ashore in Hamburg, New York. Ice piled up nearly as tall as houses in some spots.
Mounds of ice collect along the Lake Erie shore at Hoover Beach, in Hamburg, N.Y., Monday, Feb. 25, 2019. High winds howled through much of the nation's eastern half for a second day Monday, cutting power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses, closing schools, and pushing dramatic mountains of ice onto the shores of Lake Erie.(AP Photo/Carolyn Thompson)
Grandfather Mountain, North Carolina, clocked one of the highest wind speeds across the region when winds gusted to 124 mph on Sunday night.
On Monday afternoon, Mount Washington, New Hampshire, clocked a wind gust over 160mph. For comparison, Category 5 hurricanes have winds of at least 157 mph.
"As AccuWeather meteorologists expected, the strongest winds are blasting areas downwind of the Great Lakes. Winds topped 65 mph around Buffalo," Pydynowski said.
In addition to the widespread power outages, numerous trees have fallen with damage to some structures also reported. A couple of semi-trucks were also overturned by the winds.
