Mar 26, 2021 3 min read

A woman was rescued from Peters Lake Friday morning after her kayak capsized, leaving her stranded in the water.

According to Peters Township fire Chief Michael McLaughlin, someone walking the trail near the lake heard the woman yelling for help about 7:30 a.m.

“She had told her father the she was going to go kayaking and watch the sunrise on Peters Lake,” McLaughlin said.

A Peters Township Fire Department news release stated that the woman was in the “center of the lake, clinging to an overturned kayak.”

McLaughlin said firefighters trained in water rescue arrived, and took a boat out to where the woman was.

“Contact was quickly made with the kayaker, and one rescuer entered the water in order to lift the patient into the boat,” the news release states.

The woman was conscious and alert when responders reached her, McLaughlin said, but she was cold and tired. He said she was in stable condition, but treated by EMS crews for potential hypothermia before being transported to Washington Hospital.

McLaughlin said that while they aren’t sure what caused the kayak to overturn, weather played a role in how they were able to reach the woman, as “the wind was pushing waves and currents on the lake.”

“Current weather conditions, consisting of rain and severe wind, created additional hazards for rescue crews and most likely played a role in the original capsizing of the kayak,” according to the release.

Friday’s high winds also took a toll on property across the area, blowing down trees and knocking out power for many. As of noon Friday, nearly 1,500 customers were without electricity, according to West Penn Power’s website.

The wind was strong enough to bend a flagpole in half in front of Bahr Hardware in Canonsburg on Friday morning.

“We were outside unloading a tractor-trailer truck, and a big wind gust came through – it had to be about 80 miles per hour,” the former business owner Paul Kahkonen said Friday morning. “And we watched the flagpole just bend in half onto the roof. We’re trying to stop any further damage right now by pulling the flag down.”

Kahkonen recently sold the hardware store to Jason and Missy Boland. Missy Boland said they couldn’t determine yet whether the pole did any damage to the roof, but she said the wind was causing it to continue to bounce off the roof.

“It’s a commercial flagpole with the big huge flags on it,” Missy Boland said. “That’s why it’s amazing that it was bent in half.”