Malinda Urbanic was sitting down to lunch Sunday with her family at home in Acme when they saw debris blowing around in a nearby field.
“And I mean it was huge stuff,” she said.
The windows on their enclosed front porch shattered. The utility poles in their front yard snapped. And the detached garage in their backyard collapsed in a heap of concrete blocks beneath a mangled roof.
Upon emerging from the basement after the storm passed, the family coaxed 10 chickens out of their coop behind the garage. The chickens are temporarily staying in the basement.
“We got them all. They’re safe,” Urbanic said.
The twister that tore through Acme around 1 p.m. Sunday traveled 7.7 miles from Bear Rocks to Donegal at 1:05 p.m., according to the National Weather Service in Moon. It was an EF-1 tornado that started in northeastern Fayette County near Breakneck and Wingrove roads. It then headed northeast crossed Bear Rocks and Acme Dam roads into Westmoreland County.
It began to weaken around Stairs Road and dissipated over Donegal Lake.
It was one of at least four tornadoes that touched down in Western Pennsylvania as part of Sunday’s severe weather, the National Weather Service said.
“EF-1 means we’re estimating 86 and 110 mph wind speeds, and we’re looking at the damage associated with those winds,” meteorologist Mike Kennedy said.
The storm was part of a severe weather system that spawned tornadoes and large hail across the Midwest and Northeast over the weekend, killing at least 40 people in seven states. There were no reports of injuries locally.
The Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Unity saw a wind gust Sunday of 89 mph, the third highest on record there, according to the weather service. Teams were sent out Monday to examine storm damage.
Three other tornadoes were confirmed Monday by the weather service:
• an EF-1 tornado traveled 1.21 miles near Rector in Ligonier Township at 1:19 p.m. It spun out of the tornado that hit the Bear Rocks, Acme and Donegal areas. Damage primarily was to trees along Darlington, Fairview School and Weller roads. The tornado dissipated near Two Mile Run Road.
• an EF-1 tornado that traveled 1.69 miles northeast of Wilpen at 1:25 p.m. near Champion Lakes Golf Course & Resort. It started near Cow Bridge Road in Fairfield, snapping trees near Hamill School Road. The twister damaged a barn before dissipating near Hypocrite Creek Road.
• an EF-1 tornado that traveled 1.21 miles almost parallel to Route 119 in Indiana County. The twister touched down near Barrondale Road in the village of Josephine at 1:30 p.m. and moved northeast before dissipating near Gracetown Reservoir, just south of Homer City. Trees and two barns were damaged.
NWS Meteorologist Chris Leonardi said it’s not unusual for tornadoes to take place as close to each other as they did Sunday. “This kind of system was a line of thunderstorms,” he said.
In the Mt. Pleasant Township section of Acme along Route 31, there were numerous uprooted or snapped trees and power lines. Corn husks littered yards and a grill was wrapped around a wooden fence post.
Urbanic and her family have been relying on the kindness of friends — someone loaned a generator, and food and water have been dropped off. The downed utility lines in their front yard have made it impossible to get out of the driveway. Their generator was inside the now-destroyed garage.
Both Urbanic and Amie Kern, who live across Route 31 from each other, said the storm moved through very quickly. Kern said she and her family noticed the lights flicker and felt pressure at the back of the house.
“As soon as I saw it pick up a piece of my patio furniture, we headed to the basement,” she said.
They waited there about 30 minutes and emerged to surprise that there was no obvious path the tornado took, she said. Some trees and homes had no damage, while others feet away did. The only property damage at Kern’s home came from a light post that fell onto a car. Trees were snapped and toppled, but landed shy of the structure.
“They were just the right distance away,” Kern said.
A crew was working nearby to replace the utility lines. Both women were anxious to have power restored.
“The main house was safe and so we’re happy, we’re all together,” Urbanic said. “We’re safe and we’re good. That’s what counts.”
High winds cause damage
Some residents experienced 60 mph winds and quarter-sized hail that punched through window screens and riddled vehicles with dents.
Featured Local Businesses
In Parks Township, powerful winds ripped off most of the roof and pried apart the block walls of a storage building at the former Uncle Charley Sausage plant in Parks Bend Industrial Park.
The structure contained around $100,000 worth of meat processing, packing and shipping equipment, according to Clayton Apo, a supervisor with the industrial asset firm that’s auctioning off Uncle Charley’s remaining equipment, Rabin Worldwide. The main building, from where Uncle Charley’s maintenance supervisor Randy Braden watched the storm unfold, was unscathed.
“The doors were rattling,” he said. “The wind was extremely strong with a lot of hail.”
The last tornado in Westmoreland County was recorded on June 26, 2024. That day had five tornadoes in the region, according to the NWS, in areas near North Fayette, Trafford, Export and Delmont, in addition to locations in Greene County and in Blairsville, Indiana County.
The Pittsburgh region saw a record 30 confirmed tornadoes last year.
“I will say, most likely, we’ll have a less active year because last year was so extraordinary,” Leonardi said. “They’re difficult to predict — they depend on small-scale weather features.”