Strong storms knock down trees
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Ryan Hughey takes a photo of the 280-year-old tree that fell on his second-floor apartment on Pine Cliff Road in Castleton on Tuesday evening. High winds from a rainstorm caused damage around the region. Cassandra Hotaling / Rutland Herald |
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By Gordon Dritschilo Staff Writer - Published: July 1, 2009
Thunderstorms felled trees around Rutland County Tuesday, knocking three of them into houses.
"This is probably the first of several," Castleton Fire Chief Heath Goyette said as he surveyed the damage at one of the sites at about 6 p.m.
A willow tree had toppled into an apartment building on Pine Cliff Road.
"It broke off at the stump, stripped a corner of the house and broke a window," Goyette said.
Goyette said only one apartment was damaged and nobody was hurt. He said the family of six from the damaged apartment would be put up at a hotel by the owner.
"All I heard was wind, the power went out and then — kaboom," said Lynn Desabrais, a resident in a different apartment at the building.
Firefighters quickly moved on from that scene to deal with a downed power line on Little Rutland Road, all the while anticipating additional, larger storms they were told were headed their way.
"It was really cranking here for about half an hour," Goyette said. "I live on Rice Willis Road and it was really blowing. I had a firefighter whose truck got hit by a tree."
Contacted later, Goyette said that was the only house hit by a tree in Castleton that evening. Benson Fire Chief Robert St. Peter, on the other hand, said he had two, both on Park Hill Road, though he said he had not been to those scenes and did not have details on the incidents there.
St. Peter said half a dozen roads in town were closed because of flooding at some point in the evening. By 8:30 p.m., he said the roads were all open, but firefighters were still dealing with downed power lines.
"We're still out and about," he said. "We're trying to get things back to normal."
Erica Dodge, Vermont Emergency Management's duty officer on Tuesday night, said thunderstorms swept through the southern half of the state, with flash flood warnings issued in Bennington County, but Addison and Rutland counties saw the biggest of the storms.
She said the National Weather Service estimates predicted winds of 60 to 70 mph.
gordon.dritschilo@rutlandherald.com
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