New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday toured storm damage in the city of Rome after a devastating tornado touched down on the region Tuesday afternoon, following a week of multiple confirmed tornados and dozens of tornado warnings across the state.
“This is the worst event to ever hit the city of Rome in its long 228-year history,” Hochul said at a press briefing Wednesday afternoon.
The governor said that in the city alone, 22 buildings suffered major structural damage and four were entirely destroyed. Damaged buildings include county offices, city offices and courthouses, the latter of which will be closed for the time being and court services will be moved to Utica. The roof of St. Mary's Church was completely ripped off the building. Cars can be seen flipped over in some parking lots and the storm ripped right through the concrete roof at the Grand Union in Freedom Plaza. The mighty B-52 bomber that sits at the former Griffiss Air Force Base was knocked off its pedestal and the iconic mural of Paul Revere collapsed.
The National Weather Service on Wednesday morning confirmed the storm in Rome was a tornado.
In the nearby village of Canastota, in Madison County, three homes collapsed and 30 buildings were damaged, the governor said, and an 82-year-old man was killed. At one point Tuesday, there were roughly 300,000 people across the state without power.
A full assessment of the damage is ongoing.
“We are now becoming a tornado alley when you think about what happened last week,” Hochul said.
Hochul said she has deployed 50 National Guard members to the region for storm response and spoke with U.S. Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand.
“Both of them have committed any assistance we need with [the Federal Emergency Management Agency], but as you know, we first must calculate the scale of the damage. It has to exceed $37 million in public damage,” Hochul said.
Once that is calculated, a request can be put in for a disaster declaration. Hochul said the White House is aware and FEMA has been notified of the situation. Hochul declared a state of emergency for the whole state on Tuesday evening.
It’s been a wild week with a highly irregular number of tornadoes touching down across upstate New York, with at least 10 confirmed since last Wednesday. The National Weather Service says the state’s average is usually around nine a year. The storms that caused the tornadoes also caused flooding in Lewis County due to a half foot of rainfall.
“I’ve been governor less than three years. I’ve had to deal with more historic nature events, cataclysmic extreme weather events than probably anyone in history,” Hochul said Wednesday. “Hurricanes, tornadoes. Remember, last week there were 42 tornado warnings from Jamestown up to Plattsburgh. Never before in our state’s history have we had that scale of impacts from Mother Nature.”
Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente said Wednesday that cleanup operations are ongoing and encouraged the public to let crews do their jobs.
“We do need the cooperation of the public to stay out of the way of first responders,” Picente said.
Rome Mayor Jeffrey Lanigan offered encouragement to citizens in the days and weeks ahead.
“To our residents of Rome, do not be discouraged. This community is resilient and we will build back,” Lanigan said. “This is not something to get down on. We are here for you.”
An emergency fund has been established by the Community Foundation of Herkimer and Oneida Counties. Individuals, institutions, companies and other funders are encouraged to donate online at foundationhoc.org/rome or by sending a check to the Community Foundation at 2608 Genesee Street, Utica, NY 13502.
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