A tornado ripped through Montgomery County Sunday night.Monday, National Guardsmen, National Grid crews, and emergency officials have been pulled off Irene duty and sent to Cranesville where residents started to clean up.
The National Weather Service has classified it as an EF1 tornado and a small neighborhood just outside Amsterdam may be the hardest hit.
The funnel cloud went barreling down Cranes Hollow Road in Cranesville ripping up trees, tossing debris, and snapping telephone poles.
“It snapped these trees like they were twigs,” said resident Joseph Brooks who huddled in his living room through the storm with his family.
“We were terrified at what we would find, we could see parts of neighbors house just decimated,” said Jackie Pooler.
Pooler’s neighbor Kathleen Yurgans has only lived on Cranes Hollow for a year, but now she says about ¾ of her house will need to be gutted.
“There’s a tree through the house, and the water is leaking in right down to the main floor,” she said while looking up at her home.
The tornado tore the roof off her house, uprooted massive trees, and scattered debris across the neighborhood.
“I thought we made out so lucky last weekend and then to come home to this, this morning is devastating,” Yurgans said.
The National Weather Service says the tornado was about a half-mile wide and traveled seven miles along the Mohawk River from Amsterdam to Glenville.
“It looked like someone dumped a forest in the middle of Cranes Hollow,” said resident Ben Pooler.
At a nearby restaurant - folks were enjoying dinner when the storm came rolling through.
“You looked out the window and all you saw were bricks from the chimney flying, around trees flying around,” said Michele Giaimo whose parents own Valentino’s Restaurant.
She says the wind ripped a gaping hole in the roof over the dining room and today her parents are just thankful no one was hurt.
“Everyone was scared, I never saw or heard any noise that bad,” said Vittorio Valentino.
And neither had Lindsay Phillips - she's the one who captured video of the tornado tearing across the Thruway.
“I was a lot closer than I wanted or needed to be,” she said.
Phillips is an active storm chaser, but this time catching the storm was a coincidence.
“With chasing in the past, we have radar, satellite, internet, GPS, and I was sitting in my car with my cell phone,” Phillips said. “I thought it was coming at me, I have never been that terrified.”
Within ten minutes, the tornado ripped the neighborhood apart.
But residents say they've already started to put it back together.
“All we can do is rebuild from here,” Yurgans said.
As of Monday afternoon, the power was out from Cranes Hollow Road to the county line.
Officials tell us there are crews working to restore power, but that might not happen until Tuesday.
