People's jaws dropped Monday, not to catch snowflakes, but in disbelief that parts of the region was almost a foot deep in snow so deep into April.
"Our hopes to finish the school year before Memorial Day for the first time in many, many years has been dashed," Cambria Heights School District Superintendent Mike Strasser said.
Monday's snow day will push the district's last day of school to May 29. It will also probably move the graduation date.
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Aftermath of late April snow showers
"One thing about the weather is that you cannot predict it," Strasser said.
Thomas Otto, superintendent of Clearfield Area School District, heeded forecasts for the DuBois-Clearfield area, making a lot of calls Sunday night, he said.
It was the district's only snow day of the year, but it will push the last day of school back from June 7, to June 8 because all snow days built into the calendar were spent for Easter vacation in early April.
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Mirror photo by J.D. Cavrich
A?car travels past pine trees covered with snow Monday along Coupon Gallitzin Road near Gallitzin.
"If some kind of crazy event happens like this, it's common to add one more day," Otto said.
Schools all over Cambria and Clearfield counties, including Portage Area, Glendale and Philipsburg-Osceola, closed on Monday.
Power outages occurred after wet snowfall on trees with leaves broke limbs that fell on electric wires. According to Penelec's online power outage tracker, about 3,400 Cambria County residents, mainly in the northwestern part of the county, remained without power Monday afternoon.
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Video of onion snow at St. Francis University
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However, by late Monday evening, the number of Penelec customers in Cambria County without electric had dropped to about 650, the website said. Many of the outages only were affecting a handful of customers each.
"We are in hazard mode," Penelec spokesman Dennis Platt said.
There could be a couple hundred cases where wires are strewn and utility poles are down.
"We start actual restoration when those public hazards are taken care of," Platt said.
A one-car crash was reported at 6:30 a.m. Monday on Route 422 in Blacklick Township, an ambulance official said. The road was temporarily closed but reopened Monday morning.
No other road closures were reported, officials said.
"Cambria and Somerset counties were hit harder than everywhere else," PennDOT spokeswoman Pam Kane said. "First calls went out at midnight, and we'll stay on until the storm is over."
