The Eastwick Press Newspaper

Eastern Rensselaer County's Community Newspaper

Destructive Wind Blasts Through Area

By

Trees Down Everywhere

by Steve Bradley

A wind that came through the area last Thursday lasted for less than a 1½ minutes but the clean-up lasted for days. [private]

Mr. Nason, of Route 7 in Hoosick, takes pictures of his car and truck with a large pine tree laying on them. The tree also damaged his house. Neighbors two houses away also had a tree on their home. Photo by Steve Bradley

The wind, estimated to be in the 50 – 70 mile per hour range, was followed by severe thunderstorms with hail, heavy rain and a spectacular lightning show.

From Queensbury to Pittsfield there were power outages, wires and trees down everywhere, and many trees were on houses and vehicles. In the Hoosick area several trees fell on houses. Due to recent rains, many trees were uprooted in the soft soil, resulting in the entire tree coming down.

Village workers remove parts of a tree from Munsell Street that was felled Thursday evening in the strong wind. The roots of the tree can be seen just above the workers heads. Fourth ward in Hoosick Falls had many trees down. Photo by Steve Bradley

With trees blocking roads and streets, fire department personnel spent the night clearing roads.

After the power went out at 8:15 pm, plunging the area into total darkness, parts of the village had power back on by 1:30 am. Other parts of the village didn’t get their power back until late afternoon Friday.

Some nearby areas, Cambridge, for example, didn’t get power back for a couple days. Damage was everywhere, the streets were filled with branches, leaves and anything that may not have been tied down. A telephone pole on Burchard Avenue split in half with the top half hanging next to the bottom half.

Friday the song of the day was singing chainsaws. Anyone with a truck and a chainsaw was out cutting branches and removing them from lawns and homes. National Grid did a good job getting power back as quickly as possible. [/private]