Blair County emergency personnel were kept busy Tuesday evening after a round of thunderstorms brought heavy winds and rain to the area, downing power lines and trees, including this one that fell onto a house at 401 Hemlock St. in Altoona. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

Larry Field of Altoona was in his car when the storm hit Blair County on Tuesday evening.

“It was quite a blast,” the former sheriff said, noting there was “a lot of lightning and thunder.”

When he stopped his car, “it was still moving” from the wind, he said.

There were trees, wires and signs blown down by the fast-moving storm, a transformer blew and caught fire and, in Cambria County, it was reported that a cellphone tower was toppled.

The National Weather Service at State College issued a severe thunderstorm watch about 3:28 p.m. on Tuesday for Blair County, which was upgraded to a severe thunderstorm warning about 6:10 p.m. until 7:15 p.m.

Garden Heights resident Charles Geist was at a Curve game with his son when the storm hit.

“We no sooner got there than the rain just rolled in and all of a sudden, my phone starts buzzing,” Geist said.

Several of his neighbors told him to “get home” because his tree “snapped” and fell onto his home along Eveningtide Avenue. Geist said he had just put a new roof on the house in either August or September.

The tree, a Norway maple, was “probably 60-some years old,” Geist said, adding that he and his family moved in about 42 years ago.

“Hopefully, there’s no structural damage anywhere,” Geist said. “But you know what, nobody got hurt. Houses can be replaced, people can’t.”

For Geist, it was more fun to watch the Curve’s groundskeeping crew trying to put the tarp down on the PNG Field when the storm began.

“They couldn’t get it down,” Geist said with a laugh.

It wasn’t just Geist’s property that fell victim to downed trees and power lines. Multiple routes such as Frankstown Road and U.S. 22 were either partially or completely blocked by toppled trees, causing some motor vehicle accidents, including at least one with entrapment.

Blair County 911 was inundated with calls from the moment the storm began, with dispatchers saying over the scanner that services were extremely “backed up” due to the number of reports around the county.

The Altoona Fire Department said in a Facebook post that Blair County 911 was in “emergency mode” and should only be used for extreme circumstances. The department also said in a different post that as of about 7 p.m., all units in the city were in use and responding to calls.

In a Facebook post, Penelec stated the storms brought sustained winds that reached between 50 and 65 mph and left about 73,000 people without power across the state.

According to FindEnergy, about 6,787 out of 55,974 tracked meters were without power in Blair County as of 10 p.m. Tuesday night.

Following severe weather, crews prioritize clearing hazards like downed power lines, downed trees and blocked roads to ensure public safety. Damage also must be assessed before crews can safely access outage sites and initiate repairs, Penelec wrote.

Mirror Staff Writer Rachel Foor is at 814-946-7458.