Roads in Virgil and Solon remained closed Tuesday and the National Weather Service of Binghamton was on its way to confirm that what struck Cortland County Monday night really was a tornado.
“Last night there was a lot of damage in the McGraw, Solon, Town of Virgil, Town of Marathon, trees down along the interstate,” said Scott Roman, the county’s director of emergency response and communications. “We had two reports of roofs significantly damaged, waiting on follow-up information to confirm.”
The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning about 6:34 p.m., even as the winds were tearing down a barn on Daisy Hollow Road in Virgil, then heading east, where it dropped a tree on a house in Solon.
In between, it left hundreds of down utility lines, trees and debris spread hundreds of feet from their source. One person’s roof was found 30 feet up a tree across his yard in Virgil.
In Cortland County, 483 incidents were reported to emergency communications for the day, said Deputy Director Courtney Metcalf. Of those incidents, 233 were related to the storm, and 316 incidents were on the 4 p.m. to midnight shift, Dispatchers answered 444 incoming emergency telephone calls from 4 p.m. to midnight.
“The majority of the storm-related were for trees and wires down,” Metcalf said. “The hardest hit areas are Virgil, Marathon, Lapeer, McGraw and Cincinnatus.”
And it was a tornado, Metcalf said after conferring Tuesday afternoon with meteorologists, although they had yet to determine whether it was an EF-0 with winds up to 85 mph or an EF-1 with winds up to 110 mph.
Nearly 900 customers of New York State Electric & Gas Corp. and National Grid lost their power Monday evening, and new outages were reported through the night and Tuesday, so more than 800 remained without power Tuesday afternoon.
A number of roads remained closed as trees or power lines came down across them, but several were opened, Cortland County Sheriff Mark Helms announced Monday morning.
“Continue to use caution when traveling roadways you may be unfamiliar with,” Helms said via social media. “There are still trees and wires or debris down on roads throughout the county.”
The status of closed roads:
•Doran Hill - Closed
•Stramba Road - OPEN - Trees still on lines
•Bleck Road - Closed
•Center Road - Closed
•Muckey Road - OPEN
•Vandonsel Road - Closed
•Daisy Hollow Road - OPEN
•Parker Street - Closed Highland/Clarks Corners
•Route 26 - OPEN
•Cheningo Solon Pond - Closed
“Do not go near downed lines and do not drive over them turn around find an alternative route,” said Adam Brown of the Virgil Fire Department via social media. “Roads still have some debris and may be marked only with cones or barrels so use caution as driving on the roads until they can be cleared over next couple of days.”
Managing Editor Todd R. McAdam contributed to this report.
