Franklin County cleans up in wake of morning rain and wind storm - CBS 3 Springfield - WSHM

Franklin County cleans up in wake of morning rain and wind storm

On Thursday, debris and flooding filled the streets in Franklin County in the wake of an early morning rain and wind storm. 

"At 7:30 this morning, it became very bad. You could see the skies darkening and the winds seriously picked up," said David Hastings, chief of the Gill Police Department.

Minor damage had been reported in most areas, but towns like Montague and Gill were some of the hardest hit.

"We got our first call about trees on the wires up on Main Road, which shut off all of our power through the north end of our community, including our elementary school," Hastings said.  

Thursday morning, Gill Elementary School lost power just as students were arriving. Since school had ended abruptly, school officials had to make sure students got back home safely.

"We have quite a few parents drop off, and so we just notified them and sent them home and then rerouted the buses back home," said Kathleen Adams, principal at the Gill Elementary School.

However, power outages weren't the only problems reported. Crews were out in Montague Center, clearing off trees from roads.

One tree service company owner was surprised by the number of calls he got to clear trees off roads.

"I didn't think it was that bad and then all of a sudden I looked around town, and there was stuff down ... we just took down this diseased and damaged tree. It fell over last night in the wind storm. It landed on the road. This is the first one [tree], but we're heading to a couple more jobs," said Mike Martino, owner of Martino Tree Service.

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