Fire crews in Rindge were kept hopping late into the night Tuesday, chasing storm damage from thunderstorms and high winds which knocked out power and brought down large trees all over town.
Clean-up was still underway Wednesday afternoon, Fire Chief Rickard Donovan said, despite fire and highway crews clearing roads as late as 1:30 a.m.
Most of the damage was caused by high winds bringing down trees, causing seven road closures on Tuesday evening.
“I don’t know the exact speed, but looking out the window at the fire station, the trees were completely bent right over,” Donovan said. “It sounded like a freight train.”
Donovan said he has seen storm events with recorded winds of up to 40 miles per hour that didn’t cause nearly as much damage as Tuesday’s storm.
Middle Winchendon Road, the town center, North Street at Bancroft Road and Goddard Road were the areas hardest hit, Donovan said.
Kaitlyn Woods, a media representative for Eversource, said crews responded to about 2,000 power outages in the Keene area due to the storm. Rindge was the hardest hit, with 1,532 outages, she said. Crews also had to replace three broken poles and a transformer in Rindge, on Main Street, Lord Brook Road, and New Ipswich Road.
“We had approximately 25 crews working throughout the night, and additional state crews and contractors were brought in. We were able to restore power to customers by 7 a.m.,” Woods said.
Donovan cautioned residents that the storm had damaged the tops of some trees. A treetop coming down on wires Wednesday closed Converseville Road, and with more storms forecasted, additional damaged trees could come down, he said.
“Keep an eye above you,” he said.
The damage was very localized, with Rindge, Fitzwilliam and Richmond taking the brunt of the storm, meteorologist Chris Legro of the National Weather Service said Wednesday.
The thunderstorm formed in Franklin County, Massachusetts before moving up through the Jaffrey and Rindge area, but weakened quickly, he said.
“It was a pretty local event,” Legro said. “They produced very gusty winds while they were active, but the threat towards the east was much lower.”
Grafton County also experienced localized thunderstorms, Legro said.