Hurricane-Strength Winds Just Derailed A Train In New York And Left Thousands Without Power

If there was ever a time to assume that the apocalypse was happening in America, this week would be it. All over the country we've seen devastating weather this past week, from horrific tornadoes to uncontrollable wildfires. New Yorkers are lucky enough to be tucked away in the upper right hand corner of the country where we rarely experience over-the-top natural disasters. But yesterday, areas like Rochester and other Western New York locations were hit with hurricane-strength winds that have caused severe damage and left hundreds of thousands of residents without power.

Wednesday afternoon disastrous weather was unleashed on those in the Rochester area with record-breaking wind speeds.

Those brave enough to venture out to Lake Ontario witnessed raging waves crashing into the lighthouse and breaking against the wall.

While towns like Greece and Irondequoit still remain under a State of Emergency, Monroe and Wayne Counties have lifted their travel bans as of this morning.

All throughout the Rochester area, uprooted trees, knocked down power lines and severely damaged homes have been seen. The winds were so strong that entire tractor trailers traveling out on the roads were knocked over. Almost all the schools in Monroe County were closed today.

Yesterday, Monroe County 911 received hundreds of calls about the damage the weather was causing, with most recent reports stating that over 200,000 homes and businesses are still without power.

Before residents tucked themselves in last night, they knew there was almost no hope that their power would be turned back on. Unfortunately the status of these power outages have had very little change, with hundreds of thousands of residents still left in the literal dark.

At the peak of the wind storm, Rochester's airport clocked in wind speeds of 81MPH, reportedly the second highest in the area's history.

The surrounding areas of Rochester, like Batavia, saw wind speeds of over 70MPH with places like Medina also seeing high wind speeds of 60MPH. According to the National Weather Service the 81MPH winds were Rochester's second highest in its history. With trees toppling over into homes and causing drastic damage, luckily so far no injuries have been reported.

One of the most heartbreaking things about this historic wind storm so far? The fact that the iconic Nick Tahou sign that's been hanging outside our favorite Garbage Plate destination since 1968 has now been damaged.

Our iconic sign was no match with Mother Nature today #roc pic.twitter.com/oZT4RTN76O

— Nick Tahou Hots (@Nick_Tahou_Hots) March 9, 2017

And as heartbroken as we are over seeing one of our most iconic signs damaged, the hurricane-strength winds caused even further damaged when they managed to derail a CSX train in Batavia.

Just wow!

High winds derail CSX freight train in Bataviahttps://t.co/oaxrolsr4A

— Karen Ott Guerinot (@OttGuerinot) March 8, 2017

The CSX train was headed from Chicago to Montreal when 12 of its rail cars were derailed by the intense wind. The train was carrying things like gunpowder, food products and furniture, with luckily no injures reported.

Have you lost your power at all over the last 24 hours or experienced any damage to your home? Share what's happening in your home town in the comments section and tag #newyorkonly on Instagram to show us your photos of what it looks like in these affected areas!