Local and state police were in Pittsburgh on Wednesday offering assistance for the Group of 20 Summit.

The Cambria County SERT Team, which is trained to deal with crises like hostage situations, was in the city, as were state police from Blair and Bedford counties.

The police joined nearly 1,000 state troopers involved in G-20 security. Officials said 90 state troopers from Troop G in Hollidaysburg will be on patrol to maintain order during the protests and said it's one of the largest deployments in the history of the agency.

Wednesday afternoon, traffic was at a standstill. In the city nearly 100 protestors were on the West End Bridge over the Ohio River blocking traffic and displaying a banner reading "Climate Destruction Ahead."

With so many world leaders in the city, some people from the Alleghenies said they would like to get a firsthand look at what's going on. But, many were told that's a bad idea.

"Our association actually advised us not to go down there," said Mike Artim, of Cambria Rowe Business College. "They say there's really no need for us to send a group down."

Though teachers and students at Cambria Rowe are studying the G-20 closely, they're among many schools getting that same message.

"Pittsburgh is probably not the place to be right now with everything's that going on. So, I think a lot of schools are going to be doing their homework from here and catching it up on the news," Artim said.

Some, like University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown graduate Frank Huchrowski, who now lives and works in Pittsburgh, joined dozens of others at a conference to say what they think of inflation and the recession. He said he's steering clear of the city for the rest of the week.

"We're still close to the event, but we don't want to be competing with crowds and no one could come to our event if they couldn't get there by car," he said. "A lot of businesses have said, 'Everybody go home and work from home.' A lot of people with computer jobs are being told don't even come downtown for those two days."

City officials are implementing road closures at 8 p.m. Wednesday and will reopen them after 7 p.m. Friday when the summit is over.

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