Hail in Central Square
/ Courtesy Lisa Cesario-Jackson
SYRACUSE -- A severe thunderstorm rolled through Central New York on Tuesday afternoon.
It hit Syracuse just before 2:30 pm and knocked down wires on Oak Street.
Heavy rain and hail hit southern Oswego County. In Central Square, Melissa French's driveway was washed out. She says the rain had already caused problems for the storm sewer but the hail did the most damage.
"Then it just hit and it was complete hail. There was no rain for about 30 seconds. Just hail balls about the size of a nickel," said French.
According to National Grid, thousands of people were without power in Clay, Liverpool and the southern Oswego County area for part of Tuesday afternoon. Only a few hundred homes were still without power by Tuesday evening.
As of 2:30pm, severe thunderstorm warnings covered most counties in CNY. Most of the warnings expired between 3:00 and 3:30pm Tuesday afternoon.
Three upstate utilities report about 11,500 customers still without power Wednesday morning. About half of the outages are reported by NYSEG, which has more than 4,000 customers without power in Seneca and Cayuga counties.
National Grid reports more than 4,500 outages, most of them in neighboring Washington and Warren counties.
In Seneca County, 2,000 people were still without power Wednesday morning. A shelter was opened at Waterloo High School by the American Red Cross and it will close at noon on Wednesday.
