CHENANGO COUNTY – Late night calls to 911 poured in Tuesday as a severe storm hit Chenango County.
“It was an extremely busy night. We knew that there was a possibility for severe storms to come through,” said A. Jones, Chief Dispatcher with the Sheriff's Office. “It certainly lived up to what the weather service called for.”
Matt Beckwith, Fire Coordinator and Director of Emergency Management for the Chenango County Bureau of Fire said, “It was an intense storm. We had a lot of lightning strikes last night ... with winds of 25 to 35 miles per hour.”
A flood advisory had been issued for Chenango and other surrounding counties from midnight until 3 a.m. by the National Weather Service in Binghamton. Despite the advisory, Jones reported, “We didn't have any flooding issues for the most part. There was lightning damage and high winds that caused quite a few trees to come down. The downed trees were primarily in the south part of the county such as Oxford, Greene, Coventry and Mt. Upton.”
Jones explained how the “storm rolled through the entire county” and began from the northwest and ended in the southeast sections. Despite the severity of the storm, no injuries occurred.
“You always get concerned when storms roll in at night, especially late at night,” he said.
One of the more severe incidents involved a lightning strike on Bliven Coye Hill Road in Smyrna. Sherburne, North Norwich and Earlville responded to the scene, according to Chenango County Fire Alerts.
“Lightning struck a house and the house caught fire,” Jones said. “Multiple aid was involved.”
Another big incident involved the Preston United Methodist Church in Preston.
“The church steeple got struck by lightning and part of the steeple was blown apart by the lightning strike,” he said. “There was no fire.”
On County Road 16 in Plymouth, a house was hit by a falling tree, which resulted in structural damage to the house. Route 8 in Mount Upton was closed for several hours as a result of trees and live wires in the road.
There were also a couple of motor vehicle accidents, but no injuries were sustained by any passengers.
Multiple calls were made regarding trees that had come down as a result of lightning strikes and high winds. Jones reported that the busiest time for calls came in at approximately 11:30 p.m. until 1 a.m.
Said Jones, “From a dispatch standpoint, that's the time of day when we have the most limited amount of staff. The dispatchers did a phenomenal job with the sheer number of calls they handled and the departments that had to be dispatched.”
More calls were made in the morning as people woke up and saw the damage created by the storm overnight.
“A lot of times, storms like this are maybe isolated to a certain geographic area of the county,” continued Jones. “This impacted a lot of areas of the county.”
When asked what advice he would give to prepare for a storm, Beckwith said, “One of the biggest things is to pay attention to the media outlets ... There was a lot of advance warning that this (storm) was coming through.”
People should gather up any furniture or items on their lawns that may blow away, he said.
“As the storm approaches, take shelter inside,” he continued. “Stay away from open windows and doors.”
If the storm is very serious he suggested taking shelter in a basement. He also asked that people not drive during or after right after a storm, as it will be dangerous because of trees and power lines in the road. He explained that one motor vehicle accident occurred last night because the driver did not see a tree that had fallen down in the road. If driving is required he suggested driving carefully and taking one's time.
“If there are power lines that do come down, don't touch them,” he said. Reports should be made if there is serious damage or if power lines come down.