CHENANGO COUNTY – The northern part of Chenango County and southern part of Madison County are just beginning to recover from a severe storm that raged and became a microburst leaving an immense amount of damage in its wake.

The storm began late Thursday afternoon with the cell starting over Cortland County, touching down in South Otselic and Smyrna, and wrecking the most damage in Earlville and Poolville. The National Weather Service determined that the storm intensified into a microburst in Earlville and Poolville. A microburst has damaging, high-speed winds like a tornado, but with straight-line winds, not the like rotating winds of a tornado.

“The maximum wind speed was 90 miles per hours, which would be the equivalent of a EF1tornado, but with straight-line winds,” said A. Jones, Emergency Management Director of the City of Norwich.

“We're just devastated out here,” said William Excell, Mayor of Earlville, who helped direct the huge amount of traffic caused by the fallout of the storm. “I got a call from my wife on the way home. When I got to the village, I couldn't believe it.”