‘It really could’ve killed someone’: Greece neighborhood hit hard by severe storms, downed trees and power lines
GREECE, N.Y. — Uprooted trees, downed power lines and still no power for hundreds of people in Greece after severe storms ripped through the area for a second day in a row.
“It could’ve hurt my mom, it could’ve hurt my dogs — it really could’ve killed someone, honestly — but I guess Mother Nature had other plans,” Bethany Prunoske said.
Prunoske says the damage at her Maiden Lane property is a lot worse than she anticipated and it’s nerve-wracking.
“Our deck, part of it is coming undone, we have a sail to block out the sun, there’s a hole in that,” Prunoske said. “Talking to my mom, the garage is intact — shingle-wise, we don’t know what the roof looks like.”
A neighbor told News10NBC a tree was uprooted in her backyard, inches away from hitting her home, but it did hit her garage and rip off the side of her back porch. Her neighbor across the street also has a tree uprooted from his backyard and downed power lines. Many neighbors have no power.
“As you can hear around the neighborhood, most people have generators — so I got home, gassed up the generator, so luckily we can still run the AC, fridge,” Mike Stewart said.
Stewart says his wife was home with the kids when heavy rain and winds ripped through the neighborhood.
“It started to get pretty bad and windy and about that time she went down to the basement and then heard a big crash,” he said.
It ended up being an uprooted tree that fell from his neighbor’s yard, bringing down power lines next to his kids’ toys.
“It took out the fence that kind of divides our property and the school behind us. So it’s the school’s fence unfortunately,” Stewart said. “Just missed our fence by a few inches. We did have a little bit of damage to our shed and trampoline.”
Prunoske says her mom has someone coming to remove the uprooted tree from her backyard Friday morning. Stewart says they are hoping their power comes back sooner than later.
News10NBC’s Marsha Augustin saw three RG&E workers come by and assess downed power lines. As far as restoration times, RG&E hopes to have everyone on Maiden Lane back online by noon Wednesday.
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