It was a storm to remember

MILFORD — “The skies darkened; hail fell and the wind picked up so fiercely, it scared us enough to back away from the windows.” That description comes from a customer shopping at the Upper Mill in Milford on Friday June 26. The severe afternoon storm may have been short-lived, but not so the effect it left on area businesses. Because power was still out for most of Milford into Saturday, restaurants and shops were either forced to close or operate in the dark if possible. Mike Donovan, a spokesman for Pike County Light & Power, a subsidiary of Orange and Rockland Utilities, says 4,062 customers were affected by the power outage Friday evening. By 8:30 p.m., 1,500 customers in Matamoras were restored. But Saturday found 2,600 customers still in the dark. “There were an enormous amount of lightening strikes and a lot of wind sheer”, Donovan told the Courier. He added, “We had 30 crews in Milford Saturday. The damage was so severe that… in this situation, we had to rebuild whole sections of pole lines.” Most customers were restored by 5 p.m. on Saturday but 237 on Schocopee Trail and Pear Alley remained without power until 3:30 p.m. on Sunday. Belle Reve, an assisted living facility and nursing home in Milford, has back-up generators, but the elevators weren’t working. Alice and Joe Pagano, who were there on Saturday to visit an ailing 97-year-old mother, said they walked up three flights of stairs but otherwise, found the facility to be operating smoothly. For retailers, losing Saturday sales in an already laboring economy can be devastating. “Thank God it wasn’t the weekend of the Fourth”, exclaimed Kelly Wilson, owner of Hare Hollow on Broad Street. But even though the Fourth of July weekend is important for retail sales, any Saturday a retailer has to shut down is a problem. Hare Hollow stayed open as long as people could see, until about 4 p.m. on Saturday. Wilson, who has been selling country wares and furniture at her location for decades, added, “It was the longest power outage in 20 years that I can recall.” At the Lumberyard Shops, owner Maggie Casola said, “We couldn’t open our registers; we couldn’t process credit cards, so by 2 p.m., almost everybody had shut down.” For businesses that had food to protect, the losses could extend from sales to inventory. At Prime Time Meats, owner Kenny Peereboom scrambled to rent a generator to minimize his loss. “Besides losing Saturday business, it wasn’t too bad,” he said. “We emptied everything out of the cases and put it into big coolers that were powered by a generator.” In a statement issued after the weekend’s power outages, Danielle Jordan, Executive Director of the Pike County Chamber of Commerce said, “The revenue loss of a summer weekend for our local businesses is really devastating in these tough economic times. Because a thriving business community affects all of us who live here, the Chamber of Commerce is reaching out to the public for help. Jordan encouraged, “Our local businesses need the local citizen’s support. They need your help. Please come to town; shop, have a wonderful meal or take someone special out for an ice cream treat. You can make a difference. We look forward to seeing you around town!” “We’ll be doing cleanup work in the area for probably the next two weeks”, says utility spokesman Donovan. In fact, utility crews helped Milford Borough with storm-damaged trees. “Fourteen or 15 trees had to be removed because of the damage”, he explained. Milford Borough Councilman and chair of the Streets and Lights Committee, Bo Fean, noted at least ten large maple trees fell on power, television cable, and telephone lines. He lauded the community for pulling together: “Once the utility companies removed [the trees] from the wires, Milford Borough employees Donald Potter and Paul Curran, Nick May, Aaron May, and Scott Gillette, Jr. of May Brothers Landscaping, and Barry Fellman, of Barry’s Lawn Care, started their cleanup efforts. They started at 4:30 Friday afternoon and continued through Sunday evening. We couldn’t have done it as quickly without these outside contractors stepping up to the plate. We asked them for their help and without blinking an eye, they were there for us. With trucks, chain saws in hand and a chipper from Don Quick, they went about the business of cleaning up the town.” Fean issued a letter of thanks noting, “That’s the beauty of living in a small, close-knit community like ours.”