High Wind — Western Ulster, New York

2012-10-29 to 2012-10-30 · Western Ulster, New York

Event narrative

A 69 year old female was killed when a large section of roofing blew into her windshield.

Wider weather episode

Hurricane Sandy moved northward off the eastern seaboard of the United States during the last week of October 2012. Due to a very strong blocking ridge of high pressure situated over the Atlantic Ocean, the storm turned back to the northwest and rapidly strengthened as it moved toward the mid-Atlantic coast. Although the storm began transitioning into non-tropical nor'easter storm, it remained an extremely powerful cyclone. As the storm made landfall in southern New Jersey during the evening of October 29th, bands of rain moved across eastern New York. The rainfall was not excessively heavy and did not cause any flooding, thanks to dry antecedent conditions. While less than an inch of rain fell in valley areas, higher terrain areas of the northern and eastern Catskills received over an inch of rain. In Richmondville in Schoharie County 2.65 inches of rain was reported and 3.25 inches of rain was reported in Halcott Center in Greene County.

However, strong and gusty winds in association with the storm caused damage to trees and power lines across the region. Although not quite as widespread as areas across southeastern New York and New Jersey, power outages occurred throughout the region, mainly across the higher terrain. Local media reported that up to 63,000 customers lost power in Dutchess and Ulster Counties. It was also reported that utility National Grid had 8,000 customers without power in eastern New York at the height of the storm. Wind gusts of 40 to 60 mph were common from the afternoon of the 29th until the early morning hours of the 30th. Wind gusts reached 55 mph in the village of Herkimer, 50 mph at the National Weather Service Forecast Office Albany, 50 mph at Hunter in Greene County, 58 mph at Dutchess County Airport in Poughkeepsie and 60 mph at Stone Ridge in Ulster County.

These strong north to northeast winds caused very large waves of area lakes. Both Lake George and Peck's Lake had damage to docks on the southern sides of the lakes due to heavy wave and wind action.

Unfortunately, one direct death was caused by these winds as flying debris was thrown through a windshield and killed a 69 year old woman driving in Kerhonkson in Ulster County. Two indirect deaths also occurred due to carbon monoxide poisioning from using a generator in the wake of the storm in the town of Olive.

In addition, the powerful storm caused a storm surge of water that moved up the Hudson River from the New York City area. Record flooding occurred on the Hudson River at Poughkeepsie as the river reached 9.54 feet. This surge of water moved all the way up to Albany. Flooding occurred along the Hudson River in Dutchess, Ulster, Greene, Columbia, Rensslear and Albany counties causing damage to homes and businesses located near the river.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 415189. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.