Severe storms pound region
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Large hail fell in Williamstown on Thursday evening as part of a powerful thunderstorm that swept through the area. Photo Courtesy of Jane Hulstrunk |
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TIMES ARGUS STAFF - Published: July 17, 2009
BARRE - A line of severe thunderstorms, some producing hail, and reports of a tornado, rolled through the central Vermont area Thursday evening, leaving power lines down in some areas and a barn roof in Williamstown in a roadway.
The area around Washington, Williamstown and Chelsea appeared to catch the brunt of the storm.
"We had lightning, we had thunder and really violent hail," said Robert Sherman, a Washington resident.
In late afternoon, the National Weather Service in Burlington warned of a "dangerous storm" moving in the central Vermont region, including Washington and Orange counties, as well as Rutland, Woodstock, Killington and other communities. It later issued a tornado warning for parts of Orange and Washington counties until 7:45 p.m. Thursday.
The storms began striking the area sometime after 6 p.m.
Fire officials in Williamstown responded to what was believed to be a tornado that touched down there around 7 p.m., tearing a barn roof off and taking down power lines. National Weather Service meteorologist Aimee Fish said she could not confirm whether a tornado had, in fact, hit the area. She said a team would head to the Williamstown-Chelsea area today to assess the damage.
Fish said her office had received reports of tree damage in an erratic manner to suggest a possible tornado.
Reports of hail came in from around the state, with some ice stones as large as 3 inches in diameter reported in Westford and one inch in Killington, near the ski resort.
At Roberts Country Store in Washington, 18-year-old clerk Brianna Poulin said the hail was "huge."
"It was bouncing off the street and cars," she said, and a "little river" was going down the sidewalks after a torrential downpour.
Rep. Phil Winters lives along the Chelsea-Williamstown Road and said he missed the storm because he was in Tunbridge, but when he got back there were still hailstones in the road ditches, and not far off Route 110 "there must have been 15 to 18 trees within a quarter mile distance that were rolled into the ditch."
Longtime Chelsea-Williamstown Road resident George Matheson, 57, whose home is about a quarter mile off Route 110, said he saw the storm coming and when it hit it spewed hail "big as golf balls" and was "really booming."
The high winds left "leaves and limbs all over the place" but he didn't see any signs of a tornado.
Power flickered on and off during the storm, he said. Washington Electric Co-op reported some scattered outages in the area but no major loss of electricity as a result of the storm, said general manager Avram Patt.
Green Mountain Power Corp., Central Vermont Public Service and Vermont Electric Co-op were reporting scattered outages in Chittenden, Orange, Rutland, Orleans and other counties Thursday evening.
Vershire fire officials were warned to prepare for a possible tornado, but firefighter Dale Ricker said that as of 7:45 p.m., the skies were clear and an extra crew brought on earlier was preparing to leave. It appeared the storm had missed Vershire, Ricker said.
Also dodging the storm was Barre's Thunder Road, where the mid-season championships went off with only a minor hitch, a one-hour delay after a downpour soaked the track.
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