PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Parts of the Berkshires were hit with a fairly quick, but powerful burst of thunder, lightning, heavy rains and large hail Monday afternoon.
A similar storm hit Bennington, Vt., County, with the National Weather Service warning of cloud-to-ground lightning and hail. Northern Berkshire escaped the worst of the storms as they passed to the north and south.
The storm picked up at about 3 Monday afternoon and the heavy downpour only lasted about 10 or 15 minutes, but caused severe flash flooding in parts of Pittsfield and the surrounding Central Berkshires.
Drivers caught in the storm on Merrill Road and New York Avenue in Pittsfield yesterday found their cars submersed up to their windows and some almost completely submerged by the flowing water. Several people had to be carried by rescue personnel from their vehicles to safety.
Deputy Fire Chief Bruce Kilmer said yesterday that while some of those rescued appeared to be in early stages of hypothermia, no serious injuries were reported and no one required hospitalization.
Parts of upper North Street also had severe flooded areas as well. In other parts of the county, the effects of the storm were much less. Both North and Sounty counties, except for some reports of hail, were relatively unaffected.
There were more scattered thundershowers throughout the evening and overnight in parts of the Berkshires as well.
Gas Prices On The Rise Again
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Gasoline prices are slowly making their way towards the $3 per gallon mark in the Berkshires. Many gas station owners believe that we'll reach that mark or close to it by the Fourth of July holiday. Many stations are in line with the state average or at least in the same ballpark.
AAA of Southern New England's latest survey found stations in the state averaging $2.59 per gallon for regular unleaded gas. The average is up about 8 cents from last week at this time and almost a dollar from the start of the year. Some stations in the Berkshires are charging more and some slightly less. You can check the fuel finder on AAA.com or one of the several gas price reporting Web sites such as www.gasbuddy.com.
Pittsfield Women Facing Drug Charges
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Two Pittsfield women pleaded not guilty to numerous drug charges in Berkshire Superior Court on Monday.
Ashley Martin, 21, of Lincoln Street and Genese Latini, 26, of Weller Avenue entered not-guilty please to several charges ranging from drug trafficking and possession charges to conspiracy to violate drug laws charges and weapons possession charges.
The charges stem from the execution of search warrants at the Lincoln Street and Weller Avenue addresses on April 16. Investigating police officers found cocaine, heroin and marijuana. Martin was released on $20,000 bail while Latini was released on $1,000 cash or $10,000 surety.
Lightning Suspected Cause in Egremont Fire
EGREMONT, Mass. — An early morning lightning strike set an Egremont home on fire on Monday.
A fire alarm at 65 Boyce Road alerted the Egremont Fire Department just before 1 a.m.
Egremont required mutual aid from area towns including Great Barrington, Alford and nearby Hillsdale, N.Y.. The fire was extinguished quickly. The owners of home, residents of the New York City area, were not in residence at the time of the fire. The inside of the log-cabin style home sustained some smoke and heat damage. The home's exterior did not sustain any damage. Fire officials believe the fire may have started when a lightning strike followed a propane line into the house.
Man Sentenced for Possession of Child Porn
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A New Marlborough man pleaded guilty in Berkshire Superior Court on Monday to possession of child pornography.
Sean Storti, 34, of Hartsville-New Marlborough Road pleaded guilty to 26 counts of possession of visual material of a child depicted in sexual conduct.
The images were found on his computer on March 29, 2007. Judge John Agostini gave Storti a two-year suspended sentence to the Berkshire County House of Correction. He was also placed on two year's probation on the condition he continue treatment, allow any home computers to be searched by the probation department and forfeit all electronic equipment seized in the search.
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Why do you folks insist of shrinking pictures and videos to such small sizes? For those of us with higher resolution monitors, they're so small as to be nearly useless.
Embedded videos should be kept at the same size as youtube makes them (which is most cases is already shrunk), and pictures should be reasonably sized. Anything smaller, and you're doing your readers a disservice.
Thank you.
Editor: It's just a placement. If you want to watch it in full, just double-click it (in Mozilla) and it goes to full-screen; or click to YouTube. It's not like you can't change it. And YouTube keeps making the size bigger and bigger.
I understand you can make the youtube videos larger, but I was trying to point out that the pictures and videos on your site are WAY too small.
For example, I love the fact that your photographer does a MUCH better job covering events than any of the print media. But the images on a high resolution monitor (1920 x 1200) are miniscule!
Such content on most other websites is quite a bit larger than yours. I'm trying to provide constructive criticism so that you can better serve your readers.
Otherwise, my compliments on a very nice website.
Editor: The site's set for 1024x768. Making it bigger means lots of readers with smaller screens and lower resolutions would have to scroll back and forth. That would be a disservice to them. We're trying to hit the middle. You can lower your resolution or, if you've got a scroll mouse, hit control and magnify the page. Maybe we'll go bigger in the future, but not right now. Keep the criticism coming. We do listen.
You say your site is set for 1024x768, and that you're trying to "hit the middle" -- but if you click on the "full size" pictures in the photo galleries, the pictures are only 350x264. That's miniscule, not "middle", in terms of resolution.
Thanks again, though, for reading and responding to readers' comments.
