Residents of some South County towns awoke on Monday June 16, to roaring wind, wildly swaying trees, and branches, twigs, and leaves swirling all about. Mother Nature's show kept on this way for the rest of the day. There was a report of a 62-mph gust in another town.

"It was terrifying" one Beech Plain resident recalled thinking just before her household heard a startling crack! and one or two seconds later a serious thud! Across the street about half of a massive 235-year-old sugar maple, one of several survivors in a once-impressive maple row planted by original settlers, peeled away like a banana skin despite being cabled.

The homeowners wondered, not for the first time, "How many storms - wind, ice, deluges, thunder & lightning, micro-bursts and even twisters - had this tree witnessed in all that time?" No doubt countless storms. But like the fate of all living things, its day had come.

It was not the only one.

The Times asked Sandisfield Town Manager Janey Snyder to sum up what had happened. "Numerous tree causalities," she said, "resulted from from (that) windstorm, including what was left of that giant willow across from the former Silverbrook Cafe. There were numerous road closures due to fallen trees and trees on wires, including Town Hill, Cronk, Fox, Lower West, Beech Plain, and part of Route 8 The Fire Department also responded to a call about a tree-on-house on Sandisfield Road in Montville.

Thanks to the diligence (and bravery) of the Sandisfield Highway Department, inconvenience was minimized and possible accidents were averted. Thank you, team Sandisfield.