Cleanup effort in West Warwick after microburst rocked the area
By Bianca Buono
@BBuonoABC6
A powerful storm rocked parts of southern New England Friday night. It was so strong that it produced a microburst.
Crews in hard hit areas like West Warwick were still working to clean up the mess it left behind on Saturday.
"I feel alright but I hope that don’t happen again. I was terrified,” said Mark Carroll of West Warwick.
Carroll, who’s lived on Shippee Avenue since 1999, said he has never seen anything like Friday night’s storm. When he looked out the window, all he could see was white.
"It was like a freight train going by my window like white and it was going sideways,” said Carroll.
Lightning struck a nearby pole and a tree collapsed, crushing part of his neighbor’s car.
"It was all in this area. It seemed like a straight line going right through West Warwick. Trees everywhere,” said Daniel Northup who was part of the cleanup effort Saturday.
Dozens of crews around the area were faced with the daunting task of cleaning the trees up.
"The patrol division was very busy last night,” said Major Mark Knott of the West Warwick Police Department.
West Warwick police responded to at least two dozen weather related calls, but say this storm was strange due to what appeared to be a direct and narrow path.
The National Weather Service tells ABC6 that microbursts are small but can have violent results.
"It was quite shocking on some of the sections of town as you could go down one street and it would appear normal and you take a right or a left and the next street had branches and limbs,” Knott said.
© WLNE-TV 2016
