Westfield bears some scars after the severe weather last night, according to on-the-scene Assistant Fire Chief Steven Pacanowski.
"We had five confirmed buildings that were damaged, both in the town and the village. Four of them were barns or storage sheds."
He said one house had extensive damage, forcing a single resident to stay with family for the night. Pacanowski said the Red Cross will arrive in the morning to provide assistance.
Article Photos
The roof of a garage on University Park was ripped off and blown near the road. Alongside of the garage is a downed power line and a number of trees blocking access to the road.
Photo by Michael Rukavina
"We are all set for the night," he said. "Most of the roads are open and passable. There are still some residents without power and probably will be for the rest of the night."
He said the municipal Westfield electric company was addressing sporadic outages that may number dozens of homes. He said the brunt of the storm seemed to impact two or three miles of the shoreline.
"There was a lot of thunder and lightning at first, and then it just opened up with a lot of heavy rain and wind in some spots and obviously in the sections that got his the most there was damage."
No instances of flooding have been reported.
In the evening, Pacanowski said his responders performed a final sweep of outlying streets. He recommended people stay clear of any downed power lines while electric service is restored.
In Fredonia, several trees were down in the village around Risley and Center streets, and a gas line going to a barn that apparently got caught by a tree, Fredonia Fire Department Chief John Lanphere said of the initial damage.
A path of destruction, from downed utility poles and trees, can be followed beginning at Farel Road and traveling east across Chestnut Street and over to the area of University Park and Risley Street. During the severe weather, village of Fredonia and some town of Pomfret residents were without power from around 5:30 p.m. until just after 6:30 p.m. after several utility poles reportedly came down on Farel Road in the town.
According to National Grid workers at the scene, there were a total of seven downed utility poles on Farel Road, with one that was completely ripped out of the ground. The other six were snapped in half from about 10 feet off the ground. Crews worked to repair a service line that was pulled from a house after a tree had landed on the line on Farel Road.
In the village of Brocton, the intersection of Main Street and Lake and Highland Avenues was flooded due to rainfall. In the village of Perrysburg, there were reports of a fallen tree taking out power lines on North Road.
Dunkirk OBSERVER reporters Mike Rukavina and Samantha McDonnell contributed to this report.