Nearly 5,000 homes and businesses remain without power in Oneida County Thursday afternoon after an EF-2-rated tornado blew through the city of Rome Tuesday. In the aftermath of the tornado, more than 20 buildings were damaged or destroyed, including two churches, along with dozens of homes.
(Get the latest storm updates from Oneida County officials here)
For Rome Mayor Jeff Lanigan the 40 hours following the tornado that tore through his community have been nothing short of a miracle.
“If you saw this place on Tuesday at 4 o’clock you wouldn’t believe what it looked like if you went out there today,” Lanigan said.
Lanigan said 80% of affected roadways have been cleared and 70% of affected power has been restored as of Thursday morning. Lanigan said the focus is on restoring a sense of normalcy to the community.
“We’re not pinching pennies and crunching numbers at this point,” Lanigan said. “We’re just trying to get things done as quickly as we can to restore a little bit of normalcy to the community and get people to be able to move around and get to their homes and assess their own, private damage.”
The state’s mobile insurance unit will be in the Grand Union Plaza, something Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente said is a good resource for anyone impacted.
“That unit is established by the State of New York,” Picente said. “It helps residents that have been affected by the storm to fill out the required insurance paperwork so that they have, it really is a great unit.”
City and county departments are still in the process of evaluating the damage before submitting it for federal disaster relief funding. Rome Chief of Police Kevin James says departments are still working on determining the safety of some public and private properties.
“It’s going to take a while to really walk through everything and figure out where you can get back into and the ones that are going to have to be condemned and torn down at some point,” James said.
He says as of Thursday morning, 31 people remain displaced and are accessing disaster relief services at Griffiss International Airport. A pet-friendly shelter remains open at Griffiss, and there is a dry ice and water pickup there as well.
James is also urging residents to be aware of contracting scams as they look to rebuild.
"Make sure whoever you are dealing with are reputable contractors, make sure they have the proper paperwork, the proper insurances," James said.
He said there have not been too many reports of scams yet.
In the city of Rome, a curfew remains in effect. No unnecessary travel is advised between 8:30 p.m. and 5:30 a.m.
Meanwhile, the National Weather Service has confirmed that a tornado also touched down in the Madison County village of Canastota, about 20 miles west of Rome. Officials were still surveying the damage Thursday afternoon to determine the strength of the tornado. An 82-year-old man was killed after being hit by debris during the Canastota storm.
According to the National Weather Service, New York sees an average of nine tornadoes each year. So far this year, there have been 15 confirmed tornadoes, most in the last week.
