NATIONAL STORM SUMMARY

OCTOBER 2003

12th-18th...Thunderstorms packing 70 mph wind whipped across western
Pennsylvania, tearing roofs off buildings, felling utility poles and trees and
leaving thousands in the dark. The upper floors of some buildings were sent
crashing onto streets Tuesday in Butler County north of Pittsburgh, where
windows were
blown out and roofs were torn off several homes, said Frank Matis, the county's
director of emergency management. Only minor injuries were reported in western
Pennsylvania, but a man was killed near Philadelphia when a tree fell on his
car. About 33,000 people across Pennsylvania lost power, mostly in Pittsburgh
and points to the north, according to officials from Allegheny Power, Duquesne
Light, FirstEnergy and Peco Energy. Most had power back by Wednesday morning.
Wind pushed a construction trailer into the side of a building and sent roofs
tumbling onto parked cars at a mall in Cranberry, Matis said. The storm also
tore the side off of a bank. Cranberry resident Kelly Rose said she was
surprised by the severity of damage in her neighborhood - uprooted trees,
overturned trailers and houses pierced with debris - despite her experience
with the Red Cross helping to clean up after a tornado almost 20 years ago.
Farther north in Butler, where most of the damage was centered, the storms
felled trees and power lines and toppled the top stories of four buildings,
sending bricks raining on the street below, said Bob Krimbel, deputy fire chief
of the Lyndora Volunteer Fire Company. The storm system had scattered effects
elsewhere. In New York's Westchester County, north of New York City, about
1,900 Consolidated Edison customers lost power, and some 500 remained without
power Wednesday morning, spokesman Chris Olert said. Farther north, about 1,400
Rochester Gas & Electric customers lost power when utility lines came down in
the town of Greece, NY, near Rochester.

20th-25th...Rain fell in the Northwest and southeast Florida on Monday. A cold
front moved across the central Plains, bringing clouds to the Upper Midwest and
the western Great Lakes. Low pressure and a trailing cold front brought heavy
showers to the Pacific Northwest. More than 3 inches of rain drenched Hoquiam,
Wash. Wind gusts of up to 50 mph also were reported. Rain near Florida's
Jupiter Inlet also reached about 3 inches.
The Associated Press

26th-31st...Locally heavy rain fell from the Gulf Coast up the Atlantic
Seaboard onto New England on Monday, and cold air carried light snow into the
north-central states. Showers and thunderstorms stretched from northern Florida
through parts of Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware and
most of Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York state. The heaviest
rain fell from Maryland through eastern Pennsylvania into south-central New
York, with 1.58 inches by midday at Monticello, NY; 1.57 at Baltimore; 1.50 at
Mount Pocono and Pottstown, PA, and 1.40 at Allentown, PA. Heavy showers also
spread across large parts of the New England states, where St. Johnsbury, VT,
measured 1.07 inches of rain by midday.
Rain soaked much of the East on Wednesday. In the East, a low pressure system
brought heavy showers from New York to North Carolina, with some areas seeing
as much as three inches of precipitation. The system also brought light showers
to
Florida. Another cold front produced light rain over parts of Michigan and
Indiana.