High Wind in New York, March 6, 1997

During the morning of March 6, deep low pressure off the coast of New England produced damaging winds across much of eastern New York. The damaging winds brought many trees and power lines down, which resulted in power outages. In Ulster County, nearly 10,000 customers lost power. The hardest hit areas included the Towns of Woodstock and Saugerties and the community of High Falls. In Kingston, an 80 foot tree fell on a house. In Dutchess County, approximately 4,000 customers lost power. The most widespread damage occurred in the Towns of Red Hook and Stanford. In Schenectady County, a partially built hangar at the Stratton Air National Guard Base in Glenville collapsed. A crane operator was injured. In the Capital District around 20,000 customers lost power. At Albany, School Academy of Holy Names had its tar roofing ripped off. At Vine Street in Albany, a 100 foot long section of a two story wall was blown over and crashed onto the hood of a NYNEX van. At Colonie in Albany County, a highway sign supported by a steel I-Beam was sheared off. At Saratoga Springs in Saratoga County, a tree downed by the wind completely destroyed a garage. In Hamilton County, the combination of heavy snow and damaging winds brought down many trees and wires. Approximately 3,000 customers lost power throughout the county.