Visitors to Ohiopyle State Park had to scramble and take cover as powerful thunderstorms rolled through on Sunday afternoon.

The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources reported that at one point in the middle of the storm, crews had to rescue people by forming a human chain to pull them to safety. The storm had driving rain, lightning and thunder, downbursts, and 60-mile-per-hour straight-line winds.

Chris Houck, the park operations manager at Ohiopyle, says that park rangers and first responders worked quickly, even during the storm, to get people out of harm's way.

"The initial response was visitor safety," Houck said. "Evacuating people from some of the busier, rougher trained areas like Cucumber Falls and the Natural Water Slides, and extracting people from ve

See Full Page