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Big Storm, Little Town
Experienced and Written by Janine Weins
(Posted 4/25/07)

Sunday morning, April 15th, the skies were gray, a light rain was falling. As the temperatures dropped the rain turned to snow. By Sunday afternoon, the area was blanketed by several inches of heavy wet snow. Overnight the precipitation changed to rain. By midnight, the normally quiet hill was noisy. Winds were howling. Branches from nearby trees were slamming into the house and out buildings. Sometime in the early hours of the morning a sheet of standing-seam roofing blew off the barn and then swung from a single nail, slamming into the barn with a rhythm that seemed to have no pattern.

By Monday morning we had no power. By first light I could see hundreds of downed trees and branches strewn across the yard. All of Monday the piece of standing seam continued to swing from the barn roof like an ugly guillotine.

By Monday morning the barometric pressure had dropped to 29 inches, the snow had been washed away by heavy rains, and the wind was gusting more than 50 mph. Some anemometers in Lyme recorded wind gusts of 74 mph. Most roads in, and into, Lyme were blocked by fallen trees. Some familiar with storm damages said the area had experienced micro bursts with winds in excess of a 100 mph. Those who have lived in the area for more than three quarters of a century say this storm of April '07 is the worst they have ever seen. The damage in Lyme is being compared to the hurricane of '38. Those who have in their woods rotted ghosts of trees felled by the '38 hurricane say the trees in this storm were laid down in exactly the same direction as trees dropped during the '38 hurricane.

On Acorn Hill Farm we lost part of the roofs of both large barns, but otherwise the buildings sustained little damage. Our road was blocked by more than twenty fallen trees until Monday afternoon. Poles on which electric power lines had been strung were snapped. Neighbors further up Franklin Hill Road were not able to leave their property until Thursday afternoon. Power was slow to return to the area. Acorn Hill Farm got power and Internet access Friday. Neighbors further up the hill, more than a week after the storm, are still waiting for power to be restored.

On Monday, a neighbor was able to get my generator out of the lower barn. The generator kept the furnace running, the water pump working and powered some minimum lighting.

Many in Lyme are calling the storm of April '07 the storm of the century. It will be a year or more before most of the storm damage is cleaned up, and people in Lyme are going to be talking about the storm of April '07 for most of the century.

What had been a roadway to my upper pond is now completely blocked by fallen trees.	Because the soil was wet, many trees pulled up giant root balls when they fell.	Just a week before the storm, we had trimmed along the fence line so we could run new fencing and mow back to the stone walls. Now as a result of the storm we have to clean up along the fence again.
Walking in the woods is difficult because of the fallen trees and giant root balls. It is dangerous because of the lean trees, some held up only by a branch, or another leaning tree. The woods are now filled with what the old timers call "widow makers."	Most of the trees fell in a westerly direction, almost exactly the same direction as the trees fell in the 1938 hurricane.	Some trees snapped, while others were uprooted.
Before the storm, trees near the edge of the woods were straight and well trimmed—now they are a tangled mess.	It has taken road crews and utility workers more than a week to open up the roads and restore power.	The banks of Franklin Hill Road—and many other roads in Lyme—are piled high with the debris cleared from the road.
Removing the fallen and leaning trees has been slow and dangerous work.	Crossing the stone wall into the woods is difficult and dangerous, but in certain places, we now have a better view of the mountains.	Some trees became leaners—others fell to the ground.
Thousands of trees that once stood tall are now near the ground.	Some trees stood tall while others were uprooted.	In some areas the trees were snapped several feet from the ground.
Snapped trees and root balls make walking in the woods very difficult.	Some areas on the east side of the woods are a tangled mess.	An aerial view of some of the blowdown, taken from a helicopter.