The Catskill Chronicle

Story by Carol Montana, Photos by Carol Montana and Ken Walter

Dawn Smith was having fun with her grandson last Friday, August 21 at her house on Big Woods Road in Harris. Along around noon, the sky got very dark and she heard a loud noise. “It sounded like a whirling noise, like something was going to come through the house,” says Smith. “Everything went flying – the table and all the chairs went flying. I grabbed my grandson and took him down the hall so we’d be safe. ‘Cause we got a lot of windows in the front.”

When she emerged a short time later, Dawn was grateful that she had retreated toward relative safety. “When I came out there was a tree behind both my vehicles that had missed them by one inch. There was another tree that was coming down. I called the electric company and told them that there was no power, and they said they’d had no calls from Harris. I was the first one to call.”

Smith says the tornado lasted about five minutes. “It got really dark and real windy, so I thought it might just be a regular rain storm, until I heard the loud noise, and saw things go flying in the yard. It was whirling around, it wasn’t normal.”

All along the road, large and small trees were down, literally uprooted and lying on their sides. One tree landed on a house. Another tree took down a cable wire, and both landed on a van. Hundreds of large  and small branches were scattered across the road.

As late as Saturday afternoon, on the front lawns of several bungalow colonies, children’s toys and lawn chairs were still turned over and lying haphazardly wherever the big wind had left them.

To view more photos or to purchase prints from A Big Wind on Big Woods Road visit the The Catskill Chroncile on Zenfolio.