Violent Storm
Rips Brookfield
By M. D. Drysdale

Around 5:30 p.m. on Saturday a burst of wind ripped the roof and rafters from Ray and Lorrie Churchill's hay barn, leaving a trail of debris almost a quarter mile downwind. Here Paul Flint, the Churchills' son in law, surveys the damage. (Herald /. Tim Calabro)

A fierce July thunderstorm destroyed lower West Street, one of the main routes to Pond Village. And last Saturday another rumbler tore down trees through the township and left Pond Village completely marooned by blocked roads.

And just off of West Street, a Quonset-type hay barn on the Ray and Lora Churchill farm virtually exploded, its roof torn off and bits of its rafters turning up a quarter-mile away.

The series of thunderstorms laid a trail of destruction all the way across Vermont from Rutland to Bradford and continued halfway across New Hampshire before petering off, according to John Goff of the U. S. Weather Service in Burlington. It was accompanied by drenching rains, winds estimated at up to 70 miles an hour, and bolts of lightning that old-timers said they had never witnessed before.

In Randolph, the first day of school was cancelled when power could not be completely restored by Monday morning.

This was just the latest storm in what Goff termed "a very active summer in terms of severe weather." In fact, he said, his bureau has issued 149 severe weather warnings this summer for at least 100 storms.

That may be a record, he said, but it’s "hard to know."

The reason, Goff said, is a shift in the traditional boundary between warm air and cooler air. Usually that boundary is to the southwest of Vermont, and it’s the Midwest that is visited with the weather violence. This year the boundary seems to be right over Vermont.

Although some have described the storms as tornado-like, Goff said that so far no "tornadic" episodes have been recorded in Vermont this summer.

Still, the damage has been heavy. Although Saturday’s storm was very localized, Central Vermont Public Service reported that it may have caused $1.5 million in repair costs, making it the second-most expensive restoration effort—after this April’s storm that clobbered Rutland in particular.

Some 18,000 customers were out of service, and in places like Brookfield, power didn’t come back on line for three days.

"It was a long time for us," said Connie Karal of Pond Village. "I would not make a good pioneer."

As of Monday, two days after the storm, there were 920 customers still without power, including 60 in Bethel, 150 in Brookfield, 90 in Stockbridge, 40 in Royalton, 350 in Barnard, and 40 in Strafford, CVPS said.

Seeing-Eye Trees

It was widely remarked that though trees and limbs were falling everywhere, they seemed to miss the houses.

One house where it could have been worse was the home of Estella Maloney in West Brookfield, who lost a 60-foot pine. It ended up, she said, "half on one side of the house and half on the other.

The roof was punctured by four holes, however.

She was one of the old-timers who was awestruck. "I’ve lived here for 70 years, and it is the worst storm I’ve ever lived through. The lightning!"

Brookfield Road Supervisor David Gilderdale told The Herald that it was 4:30 p.m. Monday "when we actually got everybody home" because of the road blockages. The Town Garage itself wasn’t restored to power until 7:30 Monday.

West Street had 10 trees blocking it, according to Lora Churchill, which were cut up by local people. Very hard-hit was East Street, the Stone Road, and the Ridge Road, as well as Crossover Road.

Ridge Road was typical of the spotty pattern of the storm. No damage was apparent in the extensive cornfields of the Sprague farm, but a couple of miles away, about where the school is located, clusters of trees had fallen.

Pond Village itself was totally blocked, no matter what road you tried to take, and there was plenty of damage in the village to seeing-eye trees that managed to miss the homes. Connie Karal said the worst damage was around the home of Nina Gaby and Craig Smith, where two black locusts and two big maples were destroyed, one of the maples being uprooted.

The spruce tree in the Floating Bridge park, which the community lights every year at Christmas, was destroyed, too.

Across the lake, Al Wilder reported that he had lost an entire stand of about 40 trees.

Karal said her husband George makes it a point to watch thunderstorms from the front porch, because he enjoys the fireworks. Not this time, though.

"He had never seen it so scary—and he was in the ’38 Hurricane," she said. "He said the trees were twisting 90 degrees and back."

Twisting trees were also reported by the Churchills, who said the wind seemed to be coming from two directions at once. And apparently there was terrific updraft as well. A flower pot that had been resting on the porch shot straight up and hit the top of the first floor window.

Lora Churchill said the barn is partially insured and that a similar structure will probably go up in about six weeks.