“It was just so loud,” Michelle Vullo told The Post-Journal. “We had seen all the warnings, and I was sending screenshots to people who stay in RVs. I was also trying to comfort the cats when all of a sudden everything went black.”

Vullo has lived on Liberty Street for more than a decade. She said she’s never experienced a sound so explosive as the one that came from the lightning strike around 7 p.m.

The area had been under a severe thunderstorm warning at the time.

At first, Vullo and her partner thought the lightning may have hit their home or the garage. The pair contacted the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities and Jamestown Fire Department for assistance, while Vullo briefly checked on the property outside for signs off a strike.

The pine tree located behind Vullo's garage on Liberty Street in Jamestown.

Inside, firefighters found that four circuit breakers had been tripped. When one was flipped back on, Vullo said an outlet began to spark and briefly caught fire.

An electrician later arrived and assessed the damage. Vullo believes the lightning likely hit a pine tree behind her garage then traveled through a metal conduit to the panel in the basement.

Several electronics were destroyed by the close strike, including a TV, computer, fan and some fixtures.

The incident was so jarring, Vullo noted that she and her partner struggled to get any sleep Wednesday. The couple’s pets were also spooked.

“We have seven terrified cats,” she said. “We were comforting the one telling him everything was going to be OK, then 15 minutes later it happened. We didn’t see him for hours.”

Vullo was thankful to the fire department for promptly responding; she said some of the firefighters relayed that they too had felt the lightning strike all the way from their fire station.

She also thanked the electrician for coming out and looking over the home. “I have a lot of things to be thankful for, but last night not so much,” she said with a laugh.

STORM IMPACTS WARREN

Strong storms also swept through Warren County on Wednesday. While there were impacts all over, the worst of the damage seems to have been very localized on Warren State Hospital where numerous large trees were knocked down.

“We did have some storms moving through,” Meteorologist Aaron Tyburski of the National Weather Service in State College said. “They were pretty intense. … One of the things we look for is how that tree damage is. All being in a straight line is very indicative of a downburst or a microburst.”

“What happens is, a downward rush of air comes out of that thunderstorm,” he added. “It hits the ground, has nowhere to go, and is pushed out in all directions.”

With large trees uprooted, Tyburski said there had to be winds of 58 miles per hour, but that winds of 70 to 80 miles per hour were possible.

Along the southern end of Hospital Drive, one of the large trees lining the road, near the middle of the row, was uprooted while the others remain standing.

Many factors play into which trees are downed and which aren’t, Tyburski said, including the angles of the branches and the health of the trees.

One particular tree, about 5 feet in diameter, was broken off close to the ground right in front of the Main Building. The tree fell parallel to the front of the building, missing the structure.

Information about the age of that tree was not immediately available from the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services.

Brian Ferry in Warren contributed to this story.