Lancaster Storms Cause Building Collapses, Fires In PA

LANCASTER COUNTY, PA -- Officials from the National Weather Service have confirmed an EF2 tornado with winds of up to 125 mph hit near White Horse in Lancaster County at 7:38 p.m. Wednesday.

The tornado had wind speeds of between 120-125 MPH. The width of the tornado was 400 yards and its length was 4.7 miles, the NWS said.

Multiple buildings collapsed and emergency responders battled fires as the result of the tornado, according to scanner reports.

Severe thunderstorms plagued the East Coast from Florida to New York for much of the day as the storm, which has brought heavy snow to the Midwest and spawned tornadoes in several states, including Virginia, moved through, according to the National Weather Service.

Nearly 2,800 customers were without power in Lancaster County as of 11 p.m., according to the PPL Electric outage map, in the area best known as Amish country, where many of the residents eschew many modern conveniences, including electricity. Nearly 16,000 customers north of Lancaster County are without power in the wake of the storms as well, according to the map.

The high winds are blamed in the collapse of two 600-foot chicken houses in Salisbury Township, on the eastern side of the county, according to lancasteronline.com. The owner told the website the chicken houses held 16,000 birds.

Dozens of trees and branches have been brought down, taking wires with them, according to WGAL News 8, a television station in Lancaster.

The National Weather Service office in State College issued a tornado warning for that portion of Lancaster County about 7:30 p.m.

According to the Twitter account First Responder, every piece of emergency equipment in the county was called into service, and multiple fires have occurred.

Photos from the area show severely damaged buildings and debris strewn around. Lancasteronline.com reported a fire in a duplex in Leacock Township. It was believed to have been started by a lightning strike, the website reported. One building was destroyed and a second suffered smoke damage but there were no injuries, the website said.

Photos on the Christiana Community Ambulance Association Facebook page taken by Steph Rathbun showed pieces of metal that had been ripped from buildings strewn around and thrown into a tree, as well as a collapsed silo.

Pennlive.com, which shared the images, said both houses and barns have collapsed, with at least one barn trapping cows.

(Photos: Silo collapse in Gap, Pa., from the Christiana Community Ambulance Association Facebook page; damage in Paradise, Lancaster County, shows pieces of a roof blown off a building. Credit: Kelly Motter)