Shelter Island Reporter

The microburst’s damage was centered near Tarkettle and South Midway roads but heavy winds hit areas as far away as Nostrand Avenue.

“In some parts of the Island, there wasn't even a leaf on the ground, but in other areas you'd think we had a hurricane.”


That's how Highway Superintendent Mark Ketcham described the peculiar thunderstorm that caused massive damage to a small corner of the Island, with intense winds snapping dozens of trees, even ripping a few mature trees out of the ground from the roots up.


The area near the corner of South Menantic Road and Tarkettle Road was most severely hit, while many other parts of the Island seemed entirely unaffected, aside from periods of heavy rain. Nearby Lakeview Drive saw some damage to trees, and one tree fell alongside Nostrand Parkway. One large branch near Wades Beach even tore through a house.


The gusts snapped mature trees in half and even knocked them down entirely, ripping their roots from the ground.

Snapped telephone poles left a couple of homes in the Tarkettle area without power, but flickers of temporary power loss were reported sporadically across the Island.


The National Weather Service (NWS) had issued a severe thunderstorm warning for the East End in the early afternoon, which later became a warning of a thunderstorm capable of creating a tornado.


The likely culprit for the isolated violent damage, said Mr. Ketcham and Bay Constable Peter Vielbig, was a microburst, a weather phenomenon caused when a descending shaft of cool air in a thunderstorm hits the ground and fans out, like a high-velocity spray from a hose hitting a flat 
surface. The violent downdraft affects a limited area, between 1/2 mile and 2 miles in diameter, according to the NWS, and usually only lasts 5 to 15 minutes. That short time span is enough to cause significant damage. A microburst can generate winds of more than 100 mph.


The microburst moved from the Island Boatyard, through Tarkettle Road and down to Wades Beach, according to Mr. Vielbig. He estimated it affected an area about 1/2 mile in total length and around 300 yards wide, for just under five minutes.


Tarkettle Road resident Peter Reich snapped a photo of his wind gauge during the storm, which read 67 mph. He said the gauge is sheltered from the full brunt of the gusts and he thinks top wind speeds could have reached 80 mph.


“It was unbelievable,” he said of the violent, pinpoint winds. He mentioned that two of Tarkettle Road resident Charlie Wyatt's heavy lawn chairs were lifted up and sent flying, one over the top of Mr. Reich's house and one hundreds of feet away to the Eklund lawn. Mr. Reich's 800-pound lifeboat was pulled out of its cradle while a nearby windsurfer was left unmoved.


Tracy Miller, one of Mr. Reich's neighbors, said she had seen a “swirling mess going across our backyard.” She explained that debris such as branches and leaves were flying around in a circular fashion, which she thought “definitely” looked like a tornado. “We actually heard it before we saw it -- it sounded like a freight train.”


“It happened so fast,” she added. “From the time the wind really started to when we saw it blow through was maybe three to four minutes, if that.”


But the concentrated nature of the microburst left many residents unaware of the power of the storm at the time. Herb Sherman, who lives on Smith Street near Sunshine Road -- no more than a mile away from the worst of the destruction -- told the Reporter, “We got nothing -- didn't even hear the wind.”


Mr. Vielbig commented that “the Shipwreck Bar [at the boatyard] was shipwrecked,” with its top torn off and items inside strewn across the yard. Many of the trees on Tarkettle, Mr. Ketcham noted, weren't simply knocked down but “twisted right out of the ground, stumps and all. It was definitely a devastated area.”


After snapping trees on Tarkettle, the storm moved to Wades beach. “It takes maybe four or five people to lift a Hobie Cat,” explained Mr. Vielbig, but the winds were powerful enough to pick up and throw five of them “maybe 25 yards away into the water.” Kayaks were tossed around, too [see page 2].


Not surprisingly, the water was a dangerous place during the thunderstorm. Mr. Reich was certain to stay inside, off the water: “There are two kinds of people: weather-wise and otherwise.”


Some sailors misjudged the severity of the incoming weather. The sailors on the four or so boats competing in the Wednesday night races (this reporter included) were subject to intense gusts. Thick droplets of rain began to pour at the 6 p.m. start near the Greenport jetty, and by about 6:15 the breeze picked up to speeds that, along with the rain, created a “total loss of visibility,” according to North Ferry boat captain Lance Willumsen. He estimated that gusts along the North Ferry channel reached between 45 and 50 mph.


No injuries were reported, but the jib on one of the sailboats was whipping back and forth so hard during an especially strong puff that its fiberglass battens, woven into the sail, ripped out and flew away, shredding parts of the sail.


The Highway Department spent most of Thursday and Friday cleaning up the damage the storm had caused, and by Tuesday morning was cleaning up the last few branches.


“I'm glad it was isolated to one spot,” commented Mr. Ketcham. “I feel sorry for the people who got the worst of it, but imagine if that was Island-wide.”