New Hampshire microburst brought down 150 trees, damaging homes and cars
MILFORD, N.H. – The National Weather Service determined that a microburst caused significant damage in New Hampshire, bringing down 150 trees on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, National Weather Service teams were in Milford, a town in southern New Hampshire, and Lyme, located in the central part of the state near the Vermont border.
"It looked like a bomb went off honestly," said Chris Luedtke of Milford. "Trees everywhere."
The Milford storm was not a tornado. Instead, a microburst with winds around 95 mph that moved for about 0.7 miles, bringing down 150 trees, damaging two homes and destroying cars.
Nancy Metsiou's two cars were crushed by trees. She could barely get through her own front door.
"I noticed it this morning when we came out. I was in tears, I was so upset," said Nancy Metsiou of Milford. "We were very scared. We were petrified."
No one was hurt.
According to the NWS, an EF-1 tornado with 110 mph winds was confirmed in Lyme, New Hampshire.
"Substantial damage" in New Hampshire
Aerial photos from Milford show significant tree damage throughout several neighborhoods.
The Milford Fire Department said there is "substantial damage to individual residences, electrical poles, and some very large trees down in the roadways" in some parts of town.
Dozens of trees could be seen toppled throughout a stretch of land in between homes.
"It was sudden," said Luedtke. "It was just a little bit of rain, then it ended up coming down like a downpour... crazy couple of minutes."
Milford firefighters set up a command post in one of the hardest hit neighborhoods and began working to clear trees. They asked people to avoid the areas in order to let tree crews safely work.
Additional storms possible Wednesday
Eversource said strong thunderstorms knocked out power to about 54,000 customers in New Hampshire on Tuesday. Power has since been restored to nearly all customers in the state.
The company has brought in additional crews with more storms expected Wednesday.
"We've also been preparing for strong thunderstorms expected to cause additional damage this afternoon," Eversource said. "We brought in additional crews this morning to support and expect to have all our customers affected by yesterday's thunderstorms restored before the next round arrive."