David Markiewicz could only watch as high winds ripped apart his equipment barn at his farm along Rt. 98 in Alexander.
“The wind took it all away in a nutshell,” says Markiewicz.
“It picked it up, stood it up in the air about 100 feet and wrapped it over the pine tree. It then broke in half in mid air and parts came down on our house, no one was hurt , no animals , no people.”
A flying panel did almost hit someone who was attempting to move the heavy roofing, but he ran just in time.
Markiewicz and Hammer Farms say they may have to sell their 60 beef cattle to pay for a new roof. It will probably take two years to rebuild and 10 years financially to absorb the cost of repairs.
Up the road in Attica, Police Chief Dean Hendershott was trying to get the generator back up and running at the police station which is without power and phones after the roof was ripped off the building that houses the station and the DPW.
Hendershott says in his 27 years working in Attica he has never seen weather this bad. “It makes things amazingly difficult.”
Representatives from National Grid in Syracuse showed up at the Batavia Fire station to give out water and dry ice. It went quickly.
They have two other stations in Lockport and Brockport.
They say they plan on being there again tomorrow to help residents cope.
CSX crews worked through the night to clean up the train derailed near the Donahue road crossing. Westbound train traffic was moving slow through the area.
Red Cross Warming Centers are also open in Batavia at the VA on Richmond Avenue and Varysburg Fire Hall on Rt. 20A in Wyoming County.
In Orleans County, the Hoag Library in Albion and the Community Action Center in Holley are open for tonight.