Cleanup starts following Tuesday's windstorm

Jan. 10—WATERTOWN — During the height of Tuesday's windstorm, Cheryl Lawlor was sitting in the front room of her Holcomb Street house when she heard a thud.

She opened her front door to find that the large maple tree in her yard had fallen.

"Oh my God, I couldn't believe it," she said Wednesday afternoon. "If it fell toward the house, it would have killed us."

A three-block area of Holcomb Street was one of the hardest hit areas in Watertown, with a tree falling directly on a house just up the street and another tree coming down on a pickup truck in the other direction.

The wind started around 8 p.m., with the storm picking up steam throughout the night. Gusts of 78 mph were recorded at the Watertown International Airport.

Numerous downed trees and wires blocked roads all around Jefferson County. On the city's east side, a mammoth tree fell on top of a house on North Hamilton Street. A section of the exterior wall of the North Elementary School gymnasium came tumbling down.

Watertown City School District Superintendent Larry C. Schmiegel said at about 3 p.m. Wednesday that he had not quite made a decision on whether or not to close schools on Thursday.

Jefferson County declared a state of emergency at 11 a.m. Wednesday.

Contractor Nick Sherwood and his crew from Revitalized Properties will be working on the house where the tree fell through a second-floor window and damaged the roof on Holcomb street.

"That street got hit hard, for sure," said Meghan Cook, one of Sherwood's employees.

On Wednesday afternoon, Sherwood was still figuring out how to remove the tree and then repair the house. He planned to talk to a couple of other companies to come up with a plan, estimating it will cost at least $5,000 just to bring in a crane for the job.

"Obviously, we have to be careful not to do more damage and make sure no one gets hurt," Sherwood said, adding that he also has to work fast to get the second floor enclosed before it snows.

The owners have insurance and are staying with relatives.

Holcomb Street residents Christina Lauber and Zach Cook decided to venture out to assess the damage in the neighborhood. They were surprised by the extent of it.

"I feel sorry for my neighbors who woke up this morning to find the damage," Cook said.

By 8 a.m. Wednesday, Hoss Tree Service showed up to Lawlor's house to get the work done, but National Grid workers wouldn't let the company proceed until downed wires were removed from the site, Lawlor said.

The maple tree that fell in her yard was Lawlor's favorite, she said. It knocked down a large pine tree and another maple before crashing down between her house and a neighbor's house, just brushing up against it but leaving no damage.

"The Lord was on their side last night," Lauber said.

Meanwhile, Franklin Street residents Renee Carrow and Don Woodwarth had just spent much of the summer working on their house, and Tuesday's windy night was enough to set them back in their restoration.

Woodwarth recently replaced the soffit, put new siding where it was needed, rented a lift to paint the whole house and put a new fence in.

Hardly able to breathe, Carrow, who is a lung cancer survivor and is now battling cervical cancer, crawled onto the roof above the porch and replaced all the shingles by herself just a few months back.

She recently bought the house where she grew up from her father, who has dementia and couldn't keep up with it anymore.

Tuesday night, the wind took down a large tree in front of the house that bashed the corner, ripping through roof and siding. Sleeping softly through the whole event was Carrow's granddaughter Raelynne. Fortunately, Carrow made sure that Raelynne slept downstairs, in case the big tree in front gave way.

It gave way, and the corner of the house that it took off was attached to Raelynne's bedroom, where she would normally have been sleeping.

Carrow hopes to get it fixed, but it will cost too much for them to have repairs done right away, so they will have to cover it with a tarp for the rest of the winter.

The wind left tree companies busy on Wednesday, getting calls to remove downed trees from people's yards. City public works crews were out in force removing debris from city streets.

Tony Pickel, who owns All the Way Down tree service in Lowville, was out early Wednesday morning with a two-man crew and chainsaws on Mullin Street, where a 65- to 70-foot-tall tree just missed a house.

"It's not a tall tree, just big," he said.

Pickel planned to be back on Thursday to clean up the rest of that tree.

And it was a long night for first responders.

On Tuesday night, city firefighters responded to between 75 and 100 calls for reports of limbs and trees down.

Joseph D. Plummer, Jefferson County director of fire and emergency management, said that between midnight Tuesday and midnight Wednesday, dispatch had more than 600 system entries for calls. That time period normally has about 225 entries.

From 1 p.m. Tuesday until 1 a.m. Wednesday morning, there were 790 calls, he said.

"Citizens of Jefferson County better be proud," he said. "We've got some really good dispatchers. They were here for the long haul and they did a fantastic job."

Plummer said the damage is all over, but especially in the southern portion of the county and around the Tug Hill near Champion and Carthage. He said there's not as much damage in Carthage and Natural Bridge.

"City of Watertown was hammered pretty hard," he added.

Warming centers were open at the Adams, Sackets Harbor, Glen Park, Theresa and West Carthage fire departments until Wednesday evening. An American Red Cross shelter at Jefferson Community College Student Center is open overnight.

There were no injuries reported related to the storm.

Times staff writers Zachary Canaperi and Jonathon Wheeler contributed to this story.