Storm leaves trail of destruction in downtown Candor; storm cell hits Newark Valley, too

Update: While photographing the town of Candor, we also learned that Newark Valley, N.Y. was hit with possibly the same storm cell on Sunday. Several readers sent in their photos.

Joelle Neno just moved to the Newark Valley area three-months ago, and after purchasing a home. Her property, she described, is next to Trout Ponds Park.

Neno explained that they usually watch the storms roll in from the front porch; but stated that on Sunday they were fortunate, and her and her three girls were in the kitchen when the large storm cell moved through.

She further described the storm, stating, “I had my four-year-old on the counter to see, when all of a sudden the wind picked up out of nowhere; blew the rain so hard it made everything white and we could barely see our neighbor’s house. Then we saw the tree fall.”

She noted that she screamed out that they were losing a tree, as she watched it fall toward her home. 

“The sound was all wind, rain beating against the house and the crash of the impact,” she added.  

She didn’t’ recall feeling the house move, but her husband, who was upstairs when it happened, said it shook so much he thought the whole house was coming down.  

Joelle ushered the kids to the basement and her husband joined them to wait out the rest of the storm. They never heard the half of the tree that broke and hit their back porch, or anything else. They just saw it all when they emerged and realized they couldn’t get out through the front or back doors.

They walked the entire neighborhood once the storm passed and described many trees down and several homes with damage.

Original Story: Jerry Miller was sitting under his tree in the back yard on Sunday afternoon when he heard the loudest noise he ever heard. It was the wind that was about to rip out one of his largest trees, the one he was sitting under.

“That noise, it was the wind,” said Miller.

Now working to clean up the debris, remove the tree, and then assess the damage to his home of 20 years on Owego Road in Candor, Miller was doing what most of the town was doing late Sunday and through Monday.

Down on Main Street, cones had the roads closed off on Monday as workers began hauling out some of the heavy debris; large trees that had uprooted, siding that came off of surrounding structures, and even pieces of roofing, as experienced in a live video we shared earlier on Facebook.

Many not affected by the flying debris endured power outages; the majority of the wind damage, however, seemed to be central to downtown Candor.

Beginning on Sunday afternoon, around 3 p.m., heavy storms began rolling in and Candor seemed to be hit hardest. Fire calls began around 4 p.m. for downed trees on lines and various road hazards.

And although a tornado has not been confirmed for that area, Jerry Miller was pretty sure it was.

“I’ve just never witnessed wind like that before,” said Miller. 

The Candor Historian, Carol Henry, documented the storm and is familiar with the rumors that a tornado touched down in Candor, N.Y.; again we have not been able to verify this information yet. The last documented tornado in a 20-mile distance, as recorded by NOAA, was back in 2012. 

Henry stated, “So glad no one was hurt. So nice to see the community coming together to help each other out. That’s what small towns are all about – especially Candor.”

Henry herself wanted to share some of her photos taken before the clean up got totally underway. 

As for Miller and his wife, Joyce, they contacted Quick’s Tree Service on Sunday, and they came right away. But they have decided, after this, that they will be removing another tree close to their home, too, in the near future.