Storm leaves big mess in Livingston County

Livingston County, New York – On Thursday afternoon, experts from the National Weather Service spent part of Friday in Geneseo, surveying the aftermath of a storm that ripped through Livingston County.

The weather system brought high winds, heavy rain, and even hail, toppling large trees and downing power lines, knocking out power for thousands at one point.

According to NWS, despite the strong winds – it didn’t quite reach tornado level.

The Maxwell family were some of the people with whom NWS spoke. On their property, they saw the ruins of a silo left behind by the storm. “I saw top of the silo laying there and I looked. Where’s the silo?” John Maxwell recounted.

It was “50 feet up there or right in the middle of the barn,” he said. “It moved it a foot from the foundation. It must have raised it.”

About four miles from the Maxwell farm, the storm ripped a giant old tree right up from its roots at Pride & Joy Day Care. Workers had little time to react and get the children to safety. “It was a giant, big white-gray cloud. It looked like a funnel,” Kylie Young, an employee, said. “We moved the children into the hallway and sat there. We had no power.”

Dan Beaty and his wife, who live in Geneseo, lost dozens of branches from their beloved trees. “You can see the wind shipped the branches and brought them down much hanging by a thread,” he said. “It’s one of those things – caught in a bullseye, I guess.”

A bullseye – that has left a mark – on a landscape forever changed by one powerful storm that lasted just a matter of minutes.