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Tornado-like winds cause extensive property damage in Somerset County
By DARLA L. PICKETT
Staff Writer Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel Sunday, August 05, 2007

By DARLA L. PICKETT

Staff Writer

EAST MADISON -- Katie Ouilette had started up the stairs to close the window Friday when she heard "this 'everything' sound. Snap, Crackle. Pop."

"I quick, came back down and looked out this window and this is what I saw," Ouilette said, pointing to a huge pine tree that been sheared off 8 feet off the ground and had peeled back a corner of her roof like a can opener.

Ouilette and her husband, Lewis, were among dozens of home and camp owners along Laney Road on Lake Wesserunsett who were hit by a tornado-like storm late Friday afternoon during heavy thunderstorms throughout Somerset County.

On Saturday, a walk along Laney Road revealed uprooted trees, roofs and lawns impaled with flying debris, cars crushed by falling trees and utility poles and wires dangling within a few feet of the road.

Dozens of Madison's town employees, firefighters, volunteers, homeowners and Central Maine Power Co. crews were at work with chain saws and simple brute strength to begin to restore order.

Robert Higgins, the county's emergency manager director, estimated the destruction at $500,000 to perhaps as much as $1 million countywide. He said other towns also had been hit by the storms as they made their way through the area, including Norridgewock, Skowhegan, Cornville, Madison, Solon and Athens, beginning at about 3:30 p.m.

The Cornville home of Sandra and Philip Goodell on West Ridge Road was struck by lightning and "ripped a corner of the house right off," according to Sandra Goodell.

On the Monlunkus Road in Skowhegan, a woman was struck by lightning and survived, Higgins said. She was treated at the hospital and released, he said.

Higgins said that, at last report, some 1,200 homes countywide had lost power as a result of the storm. He thought that might be a low estimate. Higgins said that although the storm was called a "microburst" by weather watchers, and winds estimated at 70 mph, he figures it was closer to tornado-like winds that may have been at speeds nearly twice as much.

"Some people reported see a funnel form and start to lift water off the lake," Higgins said.

Madison Fire Chief Roger Lightbody said five vehicles had been crushed and five houses had sustained heavy damage. The winds tore the kitchen off one woman's camp.

"The total CMP infrastructure in gone and has to be rebuilt," Lightbody said.

Paul Ouellette said he was working at the Chase camp when a pine tree came down on top of his truck.

"It was unbelievable," said camp owner Jim Doiron. "I never heard the tree (fall), just strong winds and hail. It was so strong. I saw the tree down and headed to the basement. It only took a minute and a half."

Camp owner Mary Vigue looked over fallen trees that filled her yard. A stray limb had impaled her garage roof, sticking out like a giant arrow. She said it had gone through the roof about 2 feet.

Home at the time, Vigue said she didn't see much of the actual devastation as it was happening: "That's how fast it came down," she said.

Camp owner, Alex Pakulski, a Skowhegan optometrist said he and his wife, Mardi, were lucky not to have been at home. His entire driveway was filled with trees. Had their cars been there, they would have been destroyed, he said. His dock was flipped and underwater and his boat had to be hauled off the rocks down the lake, he said.

"We were really lucky," Pakulski said. "If we had been here we probably would have bee n squashed running around trying to secure things."

Katie Ouilette was home alone when the storm struck. She said she was the porch overlooking the water, when the TV newsman forecast severe storms for central Somerset County. She shut off and unplugged the TV and went inside and turned on another TV. The announcer said the storm watch had been canceled. "At that point, the cat came off the porch and went flying behind the sofa. He doesn't usually have that much energy," said a feisty Ouilette, chuckling at the memory. She said she decided she should close the upstairs window and ran for the steps -- climbing about nine of them before she heard the unimaginable noise.

Minutes later and she would have been upstairs when the tree came through the roof. Ouilette estimates it took only 30 seconds for the storm to pass by. In the aftermath, she and Lewis discovered two smaller boats destroyed, several trees uprooted, a corner of the roof torn off, a tree twisted and uprooted across her front porch and a piece of housing debris sticking in her front yard.

Ouilette, known for trying to make the best of a bad situation, said the good news is the neighbors coming to help. Young Andrew Ketterer rushing from next door to put a tarp over the items where the roof was peeled off. Neighbors like Greg Dore and Chuck Carpenter, who came to put a larger tarp on the roof. Other volunteers with chainsaws in hand, ready to help.

"There was such a huge display of concern," Ouilette said. "What wonderful friends."

Darla L. Pickett -- 474-9534, Ext. 341

dpickett@centralmaine.com

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Reader comments

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Scottb of Disgusta, ME
Aug 5, 2007 7:14 PM
"Immense pressure" blowing out windows is a myth. Usually, when a house is leveled by a tornado, it's because the strong winds of the twister get in under the roof and lift it off the house, weakening the rest of the structure, causing it to collapse easily.

Scott of Disgusta, a former storm-chaserreport abuse
Steph of Skowhegan, ME
Aug 5, 2007 10:01 AM
If it was a tornado why did the immense pressure burst her windows...doesn't this usually happen?report abuse

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