Thursday Night Storm Claims One Life
LAMAR TOWNSHIP — A storm ripped through a housing development just off Route 64 just after 10 o’clock Thursday night. High winds toppled mammoth trees into two homes, badly damaging the second floor of each.
At one of them, the Scott and Jinell Krout home at 98 Noll Drive, the Krouts and their three children were downstairs and escaped injury. But some 100 yards down the Noll Drive roadway, at the Frank and Kathy Dwyer home, the storm resulted in tragedy. Frank Dwyer had gone upstairs to secure windows, a family member said; at that point a mammoth tree crashed into the Dwyer bedroom. The impact threw Dwyer outside, landing on his driveway. Mrs. Dwyer, after a search, found her husband and an emergency crew responded. Because of the storm, the family member said, they could not LifeFlight him to Geisinger Medical Center in Danville and instead he was taken by ambulance to Williamsport Regional Medical Center where he passed away.
Family members of the retired Keystone Central teacher gathered at the Dwyer home today, stunned and badly shaken by the events of last night.
Clinton County emergency services director Kevin Fanning said much of the wind damage in Clinton County was in Lamar Township. He said a member of his staff was with a representative from the National Weather Service today to gauge the severity and type of wind which traversed the area last night.
Storm related damage was spotty across Clinton County. Clinton County Fire Wire reported that the Renovo Road was closed to through traffic because of downed trees and utility poles at Whetham Cut (7450 Renovo Road) in Grugan Township but declared the road reopened at 3 p.m. today.
Other central Pennsylvania communities were not as fortunate, flash flooding causing major damage in the Milesburg and Howard areas of the Bald Eagle valley in Centre County. There was also flooding reported in the Hepburnville and Warrensville areas of Lycoming County.
