High Winds Take Down Trees in Williamstown & North Adams
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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — A possible microburst blew through North Adams and Williamstown early Thursday morning, uprooting trees and cutting power.
"I was sure my windows were going to blow out," said Wendy Champney, who tracked the damage from a plastic fence that blew in her back yard on State Road from a home on Hamel Avenue in Williamstown.
The National Weather Service had issued a several severe thunderstorm warning just before midnight on Wednesday for Western Massachusetts, with wind gusts of up to 60 mph.
Thunderstorms hit the area around midnight.
"We had heavy rain at quarter after midnight and 13 minutes later was our first call," Fire Director Stephen Meranti said. "We were bouncing around the West End for a little while."
The first call came in for a burning wires on Leonard Street and firefighters arrived to find a tree on the line. That was followed in short order by calls about trees on wires on Ashton Avenue, Galvin Road and then Massachusetts Avenue. About 1:19 a.m., another tree fell on a building at 1585 Massachusetts Ave.
"It was all over by 2 a.m.," said Meranti.
The building department and Wire & Alarm also responded the incidents to check structural damage and wiring. No utility poles were damaged; the electrical issues came from trees falling on wires and, in a couple case, pulling the wiring off the houses.
Police Director Michael Cozzaglio said the Massachusetts Avenue was closed for a brief period because of downed trees and minor flooding.
Meranti said the emergency center at North Adams Ambulance was partially activated in case it was needed.
"I got a call at 2 a.m. saying there were two trees down on my house," said Will Rose on Thursday morning, as he watched crews finish cutting down one of the two trees that hit an apartment house he owns on Galvin Road.
Massachusetts Avenue was briefly closed and there was some minor flooding.
The town of Williamstown posted that "following last night's rains, Bee Hill, Berlin and Petersburg Roads all sustained some damage. The Highway Department is working on ensuring that all are passable, but please use caution on all of these roads as they continue to restore them."
Rose said he hadn't heard the wind but Champney said it was very loud and the rain "was swirling around."
"My neighbor said she couldn't hear the trees falling because the wind was so loud," she said.
The storm or microburst appears to have started somewhere near Frenier Avenue, cut across to Hamel, knocking down a tree on a house on Main Street directly across from the Spruces, then down Main Street into North Adams and along Galvin Road and ending across the river on Massachusetts Avenue.
Dick Pellerin, at the end of Galvin Road, woke to find his garage "covered with trees."
"It sounded like the house was coming apart," he said.
Updated at 4 p.m. with correct time of the storm and comments from the fire director.
Tags: severe weather,
