Lightning Strikes Chenango, Damages Preston Church
Published: June 18th, 2014
By: Sami Gillette

Lightning strikes Chenango, damages Preston Church

CHENANGO COUNTY – Late night calls to 911 poured in Tuesday as a severe storm hit Chenango County.

“It was an extremely busy night. We knew that there was a possibility for severe storms to come through,” said A. Jones, Chief Dispatcher with the Sheriff's Office. “It certainly lived up to what the weather service called for.”

Matt Beckwith, Fire Coordinator and Director of Emergency Management for the Chenango County Bureau of Fire said, “It was an intense storm. We had a lot of lightning strikes last night ... with winds of 25 to 35 miles per hour.”

A flood advisory had been issued for Chenango and other surrounding counties from midnight until 3 a.m. by the National Weather Service in Binghamton. Despite the advisory, Jones reported, “We didn't have any flooding issues for the most part. There was lightning damage and high winds that caused quite a few trees to come down. The downed trees were primarily in the south part of the county such as Oxford, Greene, Coventry and Mt. Upton.”

Jones explained how the “storm rolled through the entire county” and began from the northwest and ended in the southeast sections. Despite the severity of the storm, no injuries occurred.

“You always get concerned when storms roll in at night, especially late at night,” he said.

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