By Associated Press
Buffalo, NY – Winds gusting up to 77 mph knocked out power to more than 300,000 homes and offices Friday, closed schools from Buffalo to central New York and toppled trees onto a school bus, a car and a truck, killing a suburban Rochester woman and a state worker at a park in Saratoga Springs.
State and utility officials on Saturday morning said about half the outages had been fixed and crews would work through the weekend to restore the remaining 160,000, mostly in eastern New York.
Police reported a third weather-related fatality when a 38-year-old postal truck driver on a highway in Wayne County, about 30 miles east of Rochester, slammed into a tractor-trailer that had stopped while its driver cleared debris from his windshield.
The National Weather Service said the weekend would continue with freezing temperatures across upstate New York and winds up to 30 mph. Several communities with widespread outages opened shelters overnight Friday.
A fierce storm swept across the Midwest and into the Northeast before dawn Friday, sending temperatures in some parts of western New York plunging from 60 degrees to below freezing within a few hours. Downed or damaged power lines cut off electricity to at least 328,000 customers, state officials said.
A falling tree crushed a passing car near Irondequoit Bay in suburban Rochester, killing a 52-year-old woman. In Gorham, a rural town 25 miles southeast of here, a dozen youngsters narrowly escaped injury when a tree fell and heavily damaged their school bus.
At Saratoga Spa State Park, 40 miles north of Albany, a state Department of Transportation worker was killed when a tree crashed down on his pickup.
Gov. George Pataki, recuperating from surgery to remove his appendix, activated an emergency command center to coordinate state agencies that help to reroute traffic, clear debris and restore power. "The prayers of all New Yorkers go out to the families of the two individuals who died," Pataki said.
A blast of wind knocked out a 12th-floor window in a high-rise office building in Syracuse and falling debris barely missed landing on passers-by, police said. Two sanitation workers in the city were trapped in their garbage truck for more than a half-hour when it became entangled in downed power lines.
Heavy winds forced five planes to temporarily circle Albany International Airport, which was briefly shrouded in low clouds before the sky turned blue again. The planes were put in a holding pattern until the storm front passed through shortly before noon, airport spokesman Doug Myers said.
"As soon as we came through the clouds, we had a couple big dips like a roller-coaster," passenger Jason Dilwith, 25, an engineer from Argyle, said after arriving on a flight from Buffalo.
Winds of more than 60 mph buffeted the Rochester area and a 77-mph gust was recorded at the city's airport, the National Weather Service said.
Scores of schools were shuttered for the day across western and central New York. As the treacherous conditions moved across upstate New York, schools as far east as the Albany area closed early.
The barrage damaged docks along the eastern end of Lake Ontario, with surging water pushing debris onto lawns ringing the shore just west of Watertown.
In Binghamton, wind gusts above 50 mph damaged windows on the upper floors of an eight-story building, sending shards of glass crashing down onto a sidewalk and street. No one was hurt.
In North Syracuse, a tree crashed into a house but the occupants escaped injury thanks to an alert neighbor.
"We saw the ground heaving and we knew the tree was going to go over," Dawn Redden said. "I ran outside to make sure the family next door was OK."
Associated Press Writers William Kates in Syracuse and Mark Johnson and Michael Virtanen in Albany contributed to this report by AP's Ben Dobbin.