Scary moments; Wild storm downs trees.

Byline: Thomas Caywood

WORCESTER - Annemarie Barter heard the howling wind outside her Dalton Street home Tuesday night and thought she'd have to go outside in the morning and pick up a few downed branches from the willow tree in her side yard.

She didn't know the half of it.

A few moments after the thought occurred to her, a power outage plunged the house into darkness just as a towering old pine tree in her neighbor's yard crashed through a wooden fence and thudded down in her backyard. The doomed tree's upper branches clawed the back of the Barters' home as it toppled, disfiguring shingles and gutters, but sparing the structure.

"It really frightened me. I knew it hit the house as soon as I heard it," Mrs. Barter said yesterday, surveying the damage in her backyard with her husband, Bruce Barter Sr.

The Barters' grandson Jacob Miner, 12, was asleep in an upstairs bedroom at the back of the house where the tree struck. It was so dark with the power off, Mrs. Barter said, that she had to blindly feel her way up the stairs to check on him and retrieve a flashlight. She found her grandson fast asleep, oblivious of the giant tree that came within feet of smashing the roof over his bed.

A line of powerful thunderstorms raked the Worcester area at about 11 p.m. Tuesday and again early yesterday, washing out dirt roads, snapping stout trees and downing power lines across the city and the region, authorities said. The National Weather Service recorded a 68-mph wind gust at Worcester Regional Airport at the height of the storm, and a piece of wind-blown debris smashed a plate glass window in the Sovereign Bank branch at Main and Pleasant streets.

More than 6,000 National Grid customers lost power in the Worcester area, and roughly 3,500 were still without electricity as of late yesterday afternoon, said spokeswoman Debbie Drew.

Ruth Toomey of Ideal Road - in hard-hit southeastern Worcester, where a tree dragged down power lines across Grafton Street forcing police to reroute traffic all morning - had no electricity into yesterday afternoon.

"I would have thought they would have gotten to us a little sooner, considering the power has been out for 13 or 14 hours now," Ms. Toomey said.

Ms. Drew, the National Grid spokeswoman, said crews would work through the night if necessary to get power back on throughout the city and surrounding areas.

"The downed trees have been the issue throughout the day. Moving large limbs and trees from roadways and our lines, it's been tough going for our guys," she said.

Downed trees also will have to be plucked off several city homes and the Worcester Public Schools boathouse at Regatta Point State Park on Lake Quinsigamond.

Head rowing coach Richard Stavros spent the afternoon at the park unloading rowing shells, oars and other equipment from the boathouse. A massive oak tree landed square on the roof, he said.

"Thank God it landed on a beam, if not it would have gone right through the roof and wiped out all of our equipment," Mr. Stavros said. "It took a big chunk out of the overhang in the front. I guess we'll have to have somebody look at it, structurally, and see how much damage was done to the roof."

In Webster Square yesterday afternoon, Hain Nguyen sat in the shade on a curb outside his Elmer Street home waiting for workers to cut up and haul off the tree lying across his front yard and roof. A stout limb jutting out from the tree trunk punched a jagged hole in his roof, he said.

After Mr. Nguyen heard what he described as a series of "booms" Tuesday night at about 11, he tried to go out his front door to see what had happened, but found the door hopelessly blocked. He went out the back door and walked around the house to find his yard and the front of the house buried under the ancient tree.

Around the corner on Lakewood Street, a large tree limb smashed out the back window of a Jeep sport utility vehicle parked at the curb. The heavy limb was still blocking the road as of noon.

Trees and large limbs were reported down in more than 100 places in the city, said Robert L. Moylan Jr., commissioner of the Public Works and Parks Department.

Ted Pepper of Sunderland Road groused that the city hasn't been diligent in identifying and cutting down dead trees along its streets. So, when a powerful storm hits, he said, the rotting behemoths crash down on cars and roofs and block roads.

"They take our taxes, but don't trim the trees," Mr. Pepper said.

The cleanup began at 2 a.m. yesterday and continued throughout the day, officials said. The city tapped the Department of Public Works' Forestry Division to supplement crews assembled and deployed from several city divisions within the department.

Heavy wind damage also was reported in Barre, the Brookfields and Spencer.

Sutton Highway Superintendent Mark Brigham said one large tree toppled across Manchaug Road but was quickly removed, and another fell onto power lines in the Central Turnpike area, cutting power to some residents in the western part of town.

Police in Sturbridge, Auburn and Charlton said at least one road remained closed early yesterday morning because utility crews had not yet had time to repair damaged lines. In towns where the high winds were accompanied by heavy rain, public works crews also had to repair washed out roads.

Jay Whearley, Scott J. Croteau, Bradford L. Miner and Steven H. Foskett Jr. contributed to this report

What telegram.com readers had to say

- I was home and BANG the wind started. It was really scary! Lost power very quickly and it still wasn't back this morning when I went to work around 8.

- Still no power. National Grid was going to cut back the trees two years ago, never happened. I am just really glad I bought an iPhone. At least I know what is going on and can complain to you fine people.

- Mr. Moylan pointed out that DPW finished street-sweeping in the city 10 days ago. Residents now are being asked to help clean up debris from the streets, which can be taken to any of the city's yard-waste drop-off sites. They gonna help defray our gas costs? What about for our time to gather and clean? And with all the raises they (city employees) all got, let them clean the streets and do something and actually earn the money instead of holding up shovels.

- I slept right through it. Never lost power. Big surprise to me.

- I watched the line of storms come in from 10 p.m.-10:30 p.m. They looked strong, but I didn't realize until limbs were crashing into my air conditioner (that's what woke me up about 11:30) that the wind was toppling trees left and right around my house. This storm was quick and ferocious. Thankfully we got power back at 10:30 a.m.

- I live in Berlin. Power went out right before the end of the Celts game.

- Anyone interested in seeing the radar image of the squall line as it approached Worcester County can go to www.ToddGross.com.

ART: PHOTOS

CUTLINE: (1) Debbie A. Bilzerian of Worcester ducks under a fallen tree yesterday along Paine Street in Worcester after a night of intense thunderstorms. The tree landed on neighbor James Dirsa's truck. (2) Carmen Grover, top photo, of Worcester gets some help yesterday after she was unable to get her wheelchair past a fallen awning blocking the sidewalk in front of 17 Pleasant St. (3) Above, Richard Stavros, head rowing coach for Worcester public schools, surveys damage to the boathouse at Regatta Point. (4) A pedestrian walks past a blown-out garage door of a building on Pleasant Street in Worcester yesterday morning. The garage door was damaged from high winds during thunderstorms.

PHOTOG: (1) T&G Staff/TOM RETTIG (2, 4) T&G Staff/PAUL KAPTEYN (3) T&G Staff/JIM COLLINS