BERLIN – A storm Halloween night left a trail of downed trees and property damage throughout town.
On Nov. 1 the town’s public works and electric staff spent much of the day removing trees from roadways after a severe storm.
“It was isolated for the most part,” Town Administrator Jeff Fleetwood said. “It started on the southwest corner of Berlin and went to the northeast corner of town.”
While some areas of town saw no storm damage, certain sections of Berlin were scattered with torn-off tree branches and in some cases entire trees. Limbs were torn from trees at the Taylor House Museum and a block away, at the historic Robins Nest property on West Street, an entire tree was uprooted. Brady Freestone, who lives at the historic home with his family, said strong winds woke him up around 1 a.m.
“I was already concerned about trees and branches coming down,” he said. “I couldn’t go back to sleep so I turned my lights on and I’m sitting there when a gust of wind comes. I literally thought the glass was going to break in the windows. There was a rumble and I felt the ground shake. I saw my lamp shake.”
When the rumbling subsided, he looked outside. While there was nothing wrong in the front yard, Freestone was shocked to see a giant tree down on the Broad Street side of the property.
“I just went into panic mode,” he said. “It could have demolished our house or the neighbors’ houses. That thing was massive.”
The tree, which he identified as black walnut, will be cut up and removed in the coming days, Freestone said Tuesday.
Fleetwood said the town’s public works and electric departments spent nearly the entire day Friday cutting up and removing tree limbs from roadways.
“It was pretty busy Friday and Saturday as far as cleanup,” he said.
At Heron Park, fencing was destroyed and the roof of a storage building was torn off. Fleetwood said the building was used to store snow plows, one of which was moved several feet during the storm. Metal from the building’s roof was found mangled, hanging from nearby trees.
Fleetwood said the damage escalated the cleanup effort that was being planned for the park. He said town staff would be rebuilding the fence.
