Great Valley, N.Y. (WBEN) - "It was just crazy for about 60 seconds, and then it was done."
Residents in the Town of Great Valley in Cattaraugus County are picking up the pieces after an EF-1 tornado ripped through part of the rural community on Monday just after 5:30 p.m. The National Weather Service confirmed the tornado Tuesday afternoon, saying it traveled a total of 2.4 miles with an estimated maximum wind speed of 110 miles-per-hour.
The extent of the damage is extensive, with the most severe destruction taking place near the intersection of Farm Market Road and Sugartown Road. That was where one residence lost its roof and leveled their two-story barn in the backyard.
"A two-story barn used to be back here, a two-story house over here. My neighbors apparently were upstairs in their second story when the whole roof ripped off, and that's over in the neighbor's yard. So crazy, just absolutely crazy," said neighbor Pete Sunderland shortly after the storm rolled through.
According to one first responder at the scene Monday, the family was able to get down and avoid any further injury in their home after their windows in the home blew out.
Sunderland says his neighbors in the two-story home next to him were OK, while his other neighbors close by were also unharmed, but shaken by the tornado.
"My neighborhood's changed forever, really," he said. "Will they rebuild or whatever? I don't know, but that barn won't be there again. So who knows? A lot of these big trees. But yes, things have changed. We're lucky to be alive"
As for Sunderland, he says this was certainly the craziest storm he's experienced in his 27 years living in Great Valley.
"I'm in my office and then the wind kind of picked up. I didn't think much of it at that particular time," Sunderland recalled. "I'm looking out the front door, and then all of a sudden, the pine cones just started coming out of the pine trees. I shut the door, and then all hell broke loose after that. All the pine trees fell down my house."
Sunderland adds part of his roof got ripped off in the back of his house, resulting in a bit of a leaking coming in the house. The trees also fell onto his truck in his driveway, which he admits he's only had for a couple of months.
Meanwhile, Sunderland adds there was no warning of the impending storm rolling through his neighborhood.
"We got the [tornado] warning afterwards, and I made a comment about that on my phone. I know that," he said.
For Chris Baker, director of emergency services for Cattaraugus County, he says they were actually responding to another situation in Little Valley when he got the first call of damage from the tornado.
"I'm thinking like around 5, 5:30ish timeframe for that, we got the first call of a roof being torn off a building. And then we had multiple poles that were snapped over on Sugartown Road in the Town of Great Valley, and [Farm] Market Road, and then we responded the resources out to that location," said Baker from their command post at the Great Valley Fire Hall on Monday.
According to Baker, his team has not yet been able to get a clear scope of the damage sustained to homes in the area, but he knows a couple of roofs were blown off of homes, while trees were also torn to shreds and, at least, 12 poles were snapped that resulted in power lines in the roadway.
"National Grid has 12 crews here right now working on it. I think they assessed 11 poles that are snapped off, to be able to do that, and their crews are here," Baker said. "We will have crews working all night long to try to restore power, and they're going to try to work on some back feed stuff to be able to get residents their power back. We have 414 residents that are without power at this time."
While Baker admits he's seen crazier weather events in his time working as an emergency responder in Cattaraugus County, this tornado damage ranks right up near the top of his list.
"Most definitely in the top-three," he said. "This weather has been crazy the last couple weeks, and last week, we had the same thing with quick floods and roadways, and things that nature. It's just crazy."
Baker also talked about one FedEx employee who was making a delivery in the neighborhood and got caught right in the heart of the storm at the intersection of Farm Market Road and Sugartown Road.
"It picked the van up and threw it into the ravine, but fortunately, she was unhurt. Shaken up, very much so," Baker noted.
"She was right there at the intersection and actually watched it come in, because she couldn't see to go anywhere. And then all sudden, it came and she held on. It picked up, rolled it over, and that was it. So she was pretty traumatized, but she was in good spirits when we got to talking to her a little bit."
While Baker never wants to see a day like this come for his community, when storms flare up and causes some damage, his team has got to respond and go to work to help the community at large.
"With the resources that we have, the mutual aid agreements that we have and our relationship that we have with first responders and the municipalities, everybody just works together," Baker said. "We'll be done probably late tomorrow afternoon, probably getting this thing back together."
Baker adds while his team is running a command post out of the Great Valley Fire Hall, the fire auxiliary from Great Valley is helping any residents in need of food or shelter at the town's banquet hall.
