WINDS UP TO 81 MPH DOWN TREES, POWER LINESWindstorm of 2017 | 0:48 <\/p>\n
What we know Virginia Butler <\/p>\n
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Strong winds topple tree into dentist office in Irondequoit. Video by Shawn Dowd Shawn Dowd <\/p>\n
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Wind gusts Wednesday afternoon surpassed 80 mph, downing trees and power lines, leaving nearly 100,000 people in the Rochester area without power. Wochit <\/p>\n
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High winds knocked down trees and tree limbs and whipping up waves on Lake Ontario. Tina MacIntyre-Yee <\/p>\n
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Windstorm of 2017 <\/p>\n
Wind storm whips Rochester <\/p>\n
WATCH: Windstorm of the decade <\/p>\n
RAW video: High winds down trees, power lines. <\/p>\n
Dec. 27, 1889 Democrat and Chronicle.(Photo: Provided photo) <\/p>\n
Wednesday's wind gusts had the Christmas light-bedecked wires swinging wildlyon the downtown Rochester Liberty Pole but at least the whole thing didn't come crashing down. <\/p>\n
That's what happened Dec. 26, 1889, in another legendary windstorm. The pole, then made of wood, snapped into three massive fragments, bringing the wires down with it. It was 101 feet in height, 3 feet around at the base and sunken 7 feet into the ground. <\/p>\n
It had been tottering throughout the day in heavy wind, according to the next day'sDemocrat and Chronicle. The fire department was called, and a doughty firefighter named John McDermott clambered up the pole and tied a wire around it, hoping to secure it to the Sibley building. <\/p>\n
No sooner had McDermott stepped back onto the ladder than: \"the lofty pole ... swayed back once to the west and then with a slow lingering motion, while the hundreds of onlookers held their breath, fell obliquely across East Main Street, with the top pointing almost directly up East Avenue.\" <\/p>\n
For more: <\/p>\n
Rochester's windstorm of the decade wreaks havoc <\/p>\n
Read: 911 center flooded with calls <\/p>\n
Stay away from downed power lines <\/p>\n
Freight train derails in town of Batavia <\/p>\n
High school basketball games postponed <\/p>\n
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A carriage with a driver and two young men stood in the street directly in the pole's downward path, but a piece of it snagged on overhead electric wires and fell astray. <\/p>\n
Many of the people gathered around took home splinters of the pole as mementos; the firefighters hauled away a large piece to carve into wooden canes. <\/p>\n
That original wooden pole was first installed July 3, 1859, with a finely designed weather vane and ball on the top. <\/p>\n
The current, 190-foot steel pole was installed in 1965. <\/p>\n
Wind records from the 19th century are spotty, so it's difficult to know how hard the wind was blowing that day in 1889. The website thelibertypole.org pegs it at 72 miles per hour. <\/p>\n
Read the full newspaper account here. <\/p>\n
JMURPHY7@Gannett.com<\/a> <\/p>\n Read or Share this story: http:\/\/on.rocne.ws\/2mGOvRw<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Continued here:<\/p>\n Remember when the wind blew down the Liberty Pole? - Rochester Democrat and Chronicle<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" WINDS UP TO 81 MPH DOWN TREES, POWER LINESWindstorm of 2017 | 0:48 What we know Virginia Butler 1 of 4 Strong winds topple tree into dentist office in Irondequoit. Video by Shawn Dowd Shawn Dowd 2 of 4 Wind gusts Wednesday afternoon surpassed 80 mph, downing trees and power lines, leaving nearly 100,000 people in the Rochester area without power Continue reading