Straight-line winds damage area properties
Scattered damage was reported throughout the area, including West Mifflin, but Leo Street in North Huntingdon seemed to have gotten the worst of it.
By RENATTA SIGNORINI
TribLive
Frank Kingerski surveys wind damage in his North Huntingdon backyard on Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (Renatta Signorini | TribLive) When Frank Kingerski peeked out of his North Huntingdon home Wednesday after an overnight tornado warning, he noticed something was missing.
All four of his sheds had disappeared, mangled into pieces and scattered through a grassy field behind his house.
“It was devastating,” he said while surveying the damage to his property from wind on Wednesday. “There’s bits and pieces of it everywhere.”
The National Weather Service in Moon determined straight line winds caused the damage in North Huntingdon Wednesday, said meteorologist Jared Rackley. Damage was reported scattered around that area as well as West Mifflin, but Leo Street in North Huntingdon seemed to have gotten the worst of it.
“That’s kind of the epicenter of where most of the damage was in that area,” Rackley said.
The weather service conducted storm surveys in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties Wednesday after reports of wind damage. A tornado warning was in effect in that area overnight for about 15 minutes, said meteorologist Jason Frazier.
Kingerski said he and wife Teresa were awoken by the alerts on their phones for the tornado warning in the first few moments of Wednesday.
After initially brushing it off, they started to hear rain pounding outside.
“So we said we better go down” to the basement, he said.
The couple and their two Irish setters Clancy and Kirby emerged from the basement around 12:15 a.m. when the warning expired. While Kingerski peeked out with a flashlight to see the missing sheds, he didn’t grasp the full devastation until daylight hit.
Several trees had been ripped apart in his neighborhood on Leo Street, not far from Indian Lake Park. A neighbor’s shed was overturned and the chain link fence around part of Kingerski’s yard had been pushed over.
