Heavy storms through the region on Monday night caused trees to fall on a pair of houses and vehicles, utility wires to come down and power outages to more than 6,000 people around the north country.
Deferiet Fire Chief Timothy J. Irey said that the storms were so powerful that large trees fell during separate incidents at about 7 p.m. on Riverside Drive. Nobody was injured, but the inhabitants were forced to find lodging with friends and family members.
In the first incident, a large pine tree ended up coming down on a house and two SUVs at 17 Riverside Drive, causing severe damage. The residents were at home but escaped injury.
“The storm was coming through pretty good and it hit all three,” the fire chief said.
A little while later, a house at 48 Riverside Drive was damaged by a falling tree.
A Jefferson County dispatcher said the 911 center received numerous calls about downed lines throughout the area and fallen tree limbs ending up in the road on Route 3A in Deferiet and on Route 36 in Champion. No injuries were reported.
The city of Watertown and towns of Champion, Adams and Rodman each had more than 1,000 customers experiencing power outages as of 8 p.m., National Grid reported. Jefferson, Lewis and Oswego counties were under a National Weather Service tornado watch until 10 p.m. on Monday. The service also issued a flood watch for today and Wednesday due to the level of rain expected for the region.