High winds destroy Jefferson Twp. barn, shed
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
David Bertovich stands next to the family’s barn that was destroyed by strong wind shortly before 8 p.m. Tuesday. A machine shed also was destroyed on Bethel Ridge Road near Avella.
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
A barn was flattened by high winds Tuesday night along Bethel Ridge Road in Jefferson Township.
The Bertovich family's barn was destroyed by strong wind shortly before 8 p.m. Tuesday. A machine shed also was destroyed on Bethel Ridge Road near Avella, and large trees were uprooted.
Linda Bertovich walks by part of a machine shed that was destroyed by strong wind shortly before 8 p.m. Tuesday on Bethel Ridge Road near Avella.
David Bertovich looked out the window of his home on Bethel Ridge Road in Jefferson Township at 7:50 p.m. Tuesday and watched as branches from pine trees blew past.
“Things just didn’t look right,” Bertovich said. “Within 15 or 20 seconds, the wind was done.”
And so was a dairy barn near the home of his mother, Catherine Bertovich, on the other side of the road. It had stood on the family’s 240-acre farm for about 160 years. Also swept away by the wind was a shed on the property.
“It lifted the roof right off,” Bertovich said. “Part of the barn came down in the middle of the road.”
Bertovich’s brother-in-law, Randy Wargo, said he looked out about the same time from his home down the road to see the cows in the field running away from the barn.
“When he saw them run, he knew something was up,” Bertovich said. “Then he saw the barn blown apart by the wind.”
Bertovich’s wife, Linda, said she watched as the machine shed was destroyed.
“The lightning was so bad, it lit up the sky,” she said.
David Bertovich said the destruction of the property was stressful for his mother. She and her late husband owned the farm for 60 years.
The barn, which had been used as part of his father’s dairy operations, most recently housed machinery and hay. Bertovich said everything inside the structure was intact. Linda Bertovich said the barn was well-maintained, recently getting a new roof, doors and paint.
While he is looking at a major cleanup, David Bertovich said he is just grateful no one was injured and their homes were not damaged. His mother told him the wind rattled the back door of her home.
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
Trees lie uprooted along Bethel Ridge Road in Jefferson Township after strong storms moved through the area Tuesday night.
Several large pine trees also were uprooted and others snapped off. A high-lift was brought in to remove the debris from the barn from the road and lift the fallen trees in the area.
Brady Mermon, who is a township supervisor as well as chief of Jefferson Volunteer Fire Department, said it took him 20 minutes to get to the fire station after the storm hit because he had to stop along the way to remove trees and other debris.
“I have been a firefighter for 49 years and never saw it like this,” Mermon said. “For whatever reason, Bethel Ridge seemed to have gotten it the worst.”
A roof built a month ago on a garage on Bethel Ridge also was blown off, Mermon said.
Mermon said firefighters checked all of the roads in the township to make sure they were passable before finishing up for the night.
“I’ve never seen it like this,” he said Wednesday afternoon.
Lee Hendricks, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Pittsburgh, said the destruction of the barn resulted from a downburst, a localized area of damaging winds caused by air flowing out of a thunderstorm. He said the event was recorded at 8:05 p.m. in an area about two miles south of Eldersville and occurred as a line of squalls passed through the area in advance of a cold front. Another line of high winds blew through the area Wednesday morning as the cold front passed, and Hendricks said gusts as high as 52 mph were reported.