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Campus Cleans Up After 100 mph WindsBy Tammy Daniels
08:30PM / Monday, September 10, 2007
 | | Worker with Stash-N-Dah-Boyz Tree Service cuts up storm debris on Davenport Street. |
NORTH ADAMS - Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and the surrounding neighborhood were cleaning up Monday after 100 mph winds ripped through the campus Sunday night, downing trees and damaging dormitory roofs.
The storm, part of a front that moved through the area over the weekend, hit the campus about 6 p.m. High winds tore off several metal-roof sections on the townhouse dormitories along Ashland Street and knocked down trees on campus and along nearby Davenport Street.
No one was injured, Karen Gardner, college spokeswoman, said Monday.
The National Weather Service and the state Emergency Management Agency said a "microburst" hit the area - straight-line winds of between 100 and 110 mph.
Senior Jennifer Fiorile of Wappinger Falls, N.Y., and her roommate were watching television Sunday evening in their townhouse dorm when they heard a roaring sound. They went to an open door and saw "a crazy amount of rain. It was like wall of white. ... You couldn't see out the window."
A crew from Vermont Roofing seals up a dorm roof. |
On Davenport Street, Kate Schilling heard a noise, too, and looked out to see her glass-topped patio table airborne. "I saw it fly past the window."
Chris Gloninger, a meteorologist with WTEN Channel 10 in Albany, N.Y., said the damage from a microburst is sometimes greater than that from a tornado.
"What you have is quickly descending air from a high column of thunderclouds (10,000 to 12,000 feet). ... The cooler air rushes down and accelerates at a tremendous speed," he said. "It hits the ground and spreads out in all directions. The forward momentum from that column of air is pushed out parallel to the ground."
The wind speed is enough to cause significant structural damage, he said, and accompanying rain can moisten the ground around tree roots, making them more likely to topple.
The downbursts are characterized by straight-line winds; a tornado would have caused more circular damage and likely wouldn't have been wide enough to damage the several-block area, said Gloninger.
Roof debris on the campus Sunday night. (Courtesy of Valerie White) |
Students living in the townhouses were evacuated to the Amsler Campus Center, but all were returned their dorms by 8:20 p.m., said Gardner. Students living in Berkshire Towers and Hoosac Hall were asked to stay inside for a short period because of trees and wires that came down near the campus, she said.
Sections of metal roofing on three townhouses blew off and others were peeled up by the wind. Two windows were broken and a falling tree damaged a car in a dormitory parking lot.
"We watched parts of the roof fly off. One landed in the road and somebody ran out and grabbed it," said Fiorile. She and others who ventured outside also saw the tree fall in the parking lot. "That was awful."
A twisted sign on Davenport Street. |
Campus police first told them to return to their dorms. Then came the announcement to head to the Amsler Campus Center because another storm front was expected to move through the area. "We spent a couple of hours in the Campus Center waiting for another one but it didn't come," said Fiorile.
Crews from Vermont Roofing of Bennington temporarily fixed some of the damage on Sunday evening; they were back on the scene Monday morning, removing the metal shingles and laying down new tarpaper on several roofs to make them watertight.
More rain was forecast for the week but foreman Charles "Chuck" Beagle said the roofs would be in "good shape" to handle the water.
Across Ashland Street, small debris from nearby trees littered the sidewalk in front of Shapiro and Sons Inc. A tree behind the one-story building was sheared off at the roof line.
Stanley P. Cote, proprietor of Stash-N-Dah-Boyz Tree Service, said his crew had been busy all morning cleaning up fallen trees and limbs. "No tree too tall, no tree too small, we do it all," said a grinning Cote.
This was the third time the Schillings had had tree work done this summer, said Kate Schilling. A tree was taken in out in the back yard and her parents, who own the home, had the large shade trees around the front of the house trimmed in an effort to save them. It was unknown if they would survive the damage.
Tree down in a campus parking lot. |
"If we hadn't done that [trimming] we could have lost part of the house," said Schilling, looking at the logs being cut up in the front yard by Cote's crew. The long branches also took out a section of fence replaced when the earlier tree work had been done.
Most wires downed by the storm were back in place, although Time Warner was checking cable wires in the neighborhood.
There was no estimate on the damage to the campus buildings, which are owned by the Massachusetts College Building Authority. They were expected to be assessed by officials on Tuesday.
Tammy Daniels can be reached at tdaniels@iberkshires.com |
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