75 MPH Winds Wreak Havoc in Western New York
The wind was blowing so hard that the door to my walk-up attic was slamming open and closed. My alarm system chirped a few times. Other windows kept rattling in their panes. Paranoid, I turned off my computer and made sure my cell phone alarm was set, just in case the power actually did go out.
About half an hour later, things seemed to calm down just a little bit, and I was able to doze back off for about another hour. At 6:30, I woke up and turned on the tv to check out the news. Gananda was already closed and Pittsford was opening an hour late. A few other schools I’m not as familiar with were also opening late. I kept listening for my school to be announced as closed, but to no avail.
I hurriedly took my shower and got ready for work prior to letting my dog out. After I tied him to his lead, I took a cautious look around my property. Unfortunately, it was trash day in my neighborhood, and there were overturned trash cans and recycling containers, with trash spilling out into the streets. I was grateful that I had not yet put mine out, so I didn’t have to deal with that mess.
I found one of my bird feeders lying in the middle of the street. The metal pole upon which it hangs was completely contorted as if a giant had stepped on it. I carried the bird feeder and some other items of mine back up to the porches and attempted to secure them as best as I could. I started to attempt picking up my immediate neighbors’ trash cans and recycling receptacles but quickly realized it would be a fruitless effort at this point. As I watched one neighbor’s recycling bin fly down the entire length of the block in approximately 1.5 seconds, I decided to quickly make sure I still had all of my windows and shingles, then ran back inside with the dog.
Five minutes later I came back out to go to the garage to leave for work, and I found a small limb on the ground. Thank God it was small and had landed on the road, instead of anywhere near my house. But it made me worry about what I would find when I returned home later this evening. Usually when there is a huge wind storm like that, the limbs become weakened and then fall down during smaller breezes.
Driving through my corner of the city to get to work in East Rochester was like driving through a small war zone. Some people close-by have been remodeling, so there were two-by-fours, shingles, plywood, and tar paper all over. One of my neighbors found some siding in her backyard. Trash cans were rolling around in the middle of the streets, their lids bashed in and broken. Trash was everywhere. People had taken advantage of the sixty-degree weather to rake more of their leaves, which were now swirling around and redepositing themselves all over the very yards from which they had just been raked.
Instead of listening to my usual cds, I turned on the radio to keep abreast of any major traffic issues on my route. I heard that 490 was blocked near Bushnell’s Basin, due to an overturned tractor-trailer. So many lights were out that they couldn’t list them all. As the drive went on, more and more reports were being phoned in of power lines being down and trees being uprooted.
Luckily for me, there was only one stoplight out on my route to school. I decided to stop at Burger King for breakfast, and had a few scary moments when waiting in line. At one point, my Camry was rocking so hard that I felt like I had actually been lifted up a couple of inches. The bolted-down trash can along the drive-thru looked like it was about to be uprooted to land on top of my car at any second.
Upon arriving at school, everyone was excitedly sharing their stories in the hallway and staff room. Pittsford announced that it was closed, due to power outages. East Irondequoit also closed, as it was one of the hardest-hit areas. This meant that many of our students had no bus transportation, and several arrived late.
Throughout the day, we kept a nervous eye looking out the window, and the office tried to keep up on reports on the radio. At lunchtime, we heard that Palmyra Road (31) was closed at Kreag Road, due to a serious accident at the failed traffic light. A car ran through the intersection, which was supposed to be treated as a four-way stop, broad-sided another car, the driver of which died later at Strong Hospital.
Parents of students being picked up at morning dismissal were complaining that they still had no power. When I was driving out to the Fairport/Penfield area around 4 p.m., the stoplights at 441 and Baird Road were still out, but a lot of the houses in that area had power restored to them. I saw many downed tree limbs and even a giant pine tree that had miraculously completely missed the house near which it had been uprooted. Thank God, when I got home a couple of hours later, I found that there still was not any damage at my house. I checked my neighborhood website and found that only one person was reporting a little lost siding.
Watching the local news stations tonight, such as RNews and News 10 NBC, I am relieved to know that despite the amount of huge property damage done by the storm, no one was injured at most of those locations. Gusts were reported to have been as high as 75 mph. As of 6 p.m., RGE is reporting that as many as 33,000 people are still without power. They are calling in reinforcements from out of town to help, but it may still take until Sunday before all customers have power restored.
