Storm hits the Harlem Valley, slams Connecticut's Northwest Corner

HARLEM VALLEY — The storm that ripped through the region Tuesday night left many downed trees and wires in its wake, though New York fared much better than its Connecticut neighbor.

A punishing storm whipped through the Northwest Corner of Connecticut on Tuesday night, pulling down massive trees and ripping power lines off their poles. The damage was extensive — although, happily, there was no loss of life — and by Thursday morning, June 12, the corner was still struggling back onto its feet.

The Dutchess County towns came through relatively unscathed, but they were certainly not unaffected. The Millerton News, for one thing, hit newsstands a day late. The news is printed in Lakeville at the offices of its owner, The Lakeville Journal Company, which did not have power on Wednesday. The Millerton and Lakeville papers (and The Winsted Journal) were printed on June 12 and hit the stands on June 13.

By Wednesday afternoon, there were only about 100 Central Hudson customers in the three towns — North East, Amenia and Pine Plains — that were still without power. In total, among the 300,000 Central Hudson customers living in their coverage area (which includes most of Dutchess, Ulster, Orange, parts of Columbia, Putnam and Sullivan counties) roughly 30,000 to 40,000 customers were without power Wednesday morning.

"We saw a combination of high winds that brought down trees and branches onto power lines and lightning strikes that damaged facilities," said Central Hudson spokesperson John Maserjian. "There were not only damages to local power lines that serve homes and businesses, but transmission lines in substations.

"This was a serious storm," he added. "The type of damage it caused is spread out across a wide area, affecting many customers, and other utilities in the Northeast are reporting similar conditions."

Following the storm, Millerton and North East remained mostly powered, luring hungry and thirsty Connecticut residents who couldn’t cook at home or go to their usual favorites for coffee, lunch or snacks. They kept the waitstaff at eateries such as Four Brothers and McDonald’s working hard throughout the day. The Irving Farm coffee shop in Millerton looked like a refugee camp for displaced Nutmeg Staters on Wednesday. The atmosphere was chatty and collegial as friends and neighbors greeted each other with hugs, shrugs and tips on which roads to avoid.