Cleanup, utility crews still at work in Westchester a full day after intense storms

SOMERS, N.Y. (PIX11) — A full day after storms blew through the tri-state region, some customers are still without power in areas north and northwest of New York City. It’s the result of hundreds of trees having blown down in the gale-force winds of Wednesday night’s storms. Many of those trees took down power lines, leaving tens of thousands of customers in the dark.

The downed trees caused a lot of other damage, as well.

In the driveway of Angel Doci’s home in Somers, in northern Westchester County, on Thursday afternoon, sat a 1974 Mercedes 450SL two-seater convertible, with the trunk of a six-story tall tree on top of the trunk of the vintage car.

It was not a pretty sight, but Doci, the car’s owner, said that he had more important things on his mind.

“To be honest,” he said, “I don’t care about the car. The whole house is like…” He made a hand gesture implying a wipeout.

“It is what it is,” he added.

Multiple trees were blown onto his home and through part of his roof. The storm also left a situation at the edge of his two-acre property, that threatened even more damage. Wednesday evening’s high winds blew one large tree onto another, and now both trees could topple onto his home or his garage, or both, exacerbating the damage.

Emilio Bongiulio had been out of the neighborhood in Somers, where he lives, when the storm blew through. When he returned home at around 10 p.m., though, “It was pretty messy out there,” he said. “It was like the apocalypse. Trees down everywhere, lots of debris in the road.”

Electrical utility crews and tree removal crews alike were all over the northern and northwestern suburbs.

The need for them was great. Thanks to downed trees, which needed to be cut up and removed, a lot of residents were without electricity.

According to local utilities, more than 12,000 were in the dark in Orange County, 11,000 in Dutchess, 1,000 in Rockland, and 3,600 in Westchester.

Hard work by utility crews got those numbers down into the low hundreds by Thursday evening.

As PIX11 News reported last week, an abnormally hot summer is expected this year, according to the National Weather Service.

That means that conditions like those that created the severe thunderstorms on Wednesday evening may produce more storms like it this season, which may also be more intense.

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