Strong winds, topping 60, and even 70 miles per hour did damage across Western NY and the Finger Lakes on Wednesday.
There was a peak wind gust of 66mph at the Rochester Airport, and a gust that reached 75mph in Batavia.
Most of the high wind warnings were lifted by late Wednesday night. A lakeshore flood warning for Wayne County was lifted early Thursday.
Monroe County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo declared a State of Emergency Wednesday afternoon due to the high winds.
The State of Emergency allows the county to institute a Commercial Traffic Ban, which officially restricted the travel of high-profile vehicles in Monroe County through 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday.
Officials say that high profile vehicles are most commonly recognized as tractor trailers or other large scale trucks, which can be susceptible to overturning in high wind event.
Monroe County Sheriff Todd Baxter said a few trucks overturned as well during the strong winds.
A number of tree branches and power lines were already reported down due to high winds on Wednesday morning, and a large tent that covered part of a courtyard at Frontier Field was blown over by the wind. Firefighters were on scene helping to take down the remnants of it, and police had a section of the street near the stadium blocked off.
Rochester Red Wings General Manager Dan Mason says the tent is used in the picnic area around the Walk of Fame Cafe.
He says the wind ripped the tent right out of its moorings in the concrete, and will have to be replaced.
Part of the facade of a building on Main St. in Downtown Rochester came off in the wind, causing some traffic issues in the morning; there were no injuries.
Power outage numbers were in the tens of thousands. By midday on Thursday, RG&E reported around 9,800 customers without electricity in Monroe County, and several hundred outages in Ontario and Wayne Counties.
NYSEG had several hundred customers without power .
NYSEG’s and RG&E say that their first priority is to respond to known incidents of downed power lines to make the situations safe. (NYSEG customers are asked to call 1-800-572-1131 to report downed wires. RG&E customers are asked to call 1-800-743-1701).
National Grid in Monroe County reported about 3,200 customers without power as of Noon on Thursday.
There also were a number of cancellationsfor flights out of the Greater Rochester International Airport.
The wild weather included a brief bout of snow Wed. afternoon on State Street in Rochester:
