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We thought we were safe, since the assumption that Western Pennsylvannia's hilly topography was the best deterrent to tornadoes had almost always held true. Yet during the night of June 2nd, sixteen confirmed tornado touchdowns were reported in Allegheny and the surrounding counties. Early Tuesday evening, once sunny skies turned inside out and became an ominous, shadowy gray -- certainly the foreshadowing of something sinister. Thus began the onslaught of hard hitting storms and twisting, destruction-causing tornadoes which wreaked havok throughout the tri-state area. Tornadoes haven't ravaged these parts since 1985. Two eerie lines of funnel clouds and beating thunderstorms weaved through our region, beginning in Beaver County, then to Pittsburgh and onwards into Washington, Westmoreland and Somerset counties. Fortunately, no one was killed, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Uprooted trees, blown-down walls, huge hailstones pouring down on cars and flash floods were all incidents due to the storm's path of destruction. Mt. Washington suffered the worst of the storms, with as many as 250 buildings damaged by a confirmed twister. About six people suffered minor injuries in that area of the city. An initial wave of storms was followed by another round of tornadoes which followed the same general path as the first round. Some residents of Mount Washington were told to head back to their homes as the second storm approached, but many of those people's homes had their roofs torn off from the first round. About 50,000 people in more than 30 communities were been left without power, about 15,000 of whom were still in the dark on Wednesday. The Parkway West was closed for more than an hour as more than a dozen trees littered the roadway. Click on a thumbnail (taken by OnTV Stormwatch photographer Alan Freed) below to view a bigger version of it. From Raccoon Township... ...And on Mount Washington
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