First Person Account of the Clark Mills Tornado on June 22, 2025

Imagine going to bed one night and waking up the next morning to the news your street got pummeled by a tornado.

During the early morning hours of June 22, 2025, I woke up to what sounded like hail battering my windows and roof. My screens were completely obscured by the water, making it impossible to see outside.

During that time, white hot lightning was ricocheting across the skies followed by the undulating roar of thunder.

Get our free mobile app

I laid back in my bed and thought to myself, "I guess grandpa is bowling again," a funny saying my mom used to make thunderstorms less scary for me when I was little.

That's all I thought it was - a really intense thunderstorm. Nothing Central New York hadn't seen before, right?

My phone remained dark. No EAS or weather alerts came through to tell me to get to safety. No sirens bellowed in the distance, either.

The power flickered and I heard what I thought at the time was a minute-long growl of thunder - which I now realize was the tornado. Shortly after hearing that wicked noise, the lights were knocked out and everything went dark.

Aside from the intermittent police and ambulance siren, it was silent.

I turned over and shut my eyes, not knowing that our neighborhood was forever changed.

The following morning, there was still no power. So, like most of my neighbors, I decided to grab a hot coffee and a warm breakfast at the nearby Byrne Dairy.

It was eerily quiet as my neighbors and I surveyed the massive storm damage during our walk to Byrne Dairy. Cars were smashed under heavy trees, porches were demolished, and shingles were ripped from the roof tops of the homes we passed.

We debated what caused the damage. Was it a microburst? A tornado? We didn't have a clue.

We then began trading concerns about the lack of weather alerts - and how that gave us a false sense of security during what was obviously a very dangerous storm.

The only EAS notification came about an hour later, which was a flash flood warning.

Byrne Dairy was overflowing with customers and there was a growing line to grab a cup of coffee. A worker was stationed at the counter, and her sole mission was to keep the caffeine flowing.

During that time, I tried texting and calling my family to let them know what happened. But, those who live on Clinton Street know full well it's a dead zone.

Without power or internet, our ability to send and receive information was severed.

One of our only options was to get in our car and drive to an area with service, which is what I did in order to figure out what was going on in my area.

To wrap things up, National Grid and DOT workers have been working around the clock on my street - in the extreme heat - to clean up the terrible mess.

Volunteers have also done a tremendous job helping their neighbors in need, whether it be clearing debris from their property to bringing them cold water during the heat wave.

It's amazing to see how the community came together to help each other.

It's frightening to think we were hit by a tornado and that many of us didn't receive an emergency alert.

We will probably never view a thunderstorm the same way again, much like the people of Rome who endured a far greater threat in July 2024.