Imagine driving alone early on a weekday morning. It is raining. Suddenly you hear a noise like a loud, oncoming freight train. Within thirty seconds hundreds of trees have been knocked down, split, or uprooted along with utility wires and poles. You feel your car lift up off the ground.

This was what happened at approximately 4:45 a.m. for two drivers on the morning of Wednesday, October 8. No one was seriously injured, but at least three houses have suffered damage by fallen trees.

Although originally called a small tornado, this incident was later defined as a microburst, a straight, brief, downdraft of strong wind. It is suspected that this microburst was intensified by its location west of and parallel to Mt. Tom. Winds were reported at 100 miles per hour in that fraction of a minute.

Mayor Karen Cadieux announced a local state of emergency at 6 a.m. Wednesday morning.

While the only damage occurred on a mile stretch of Mountain Road and Hendricks Street in Easthampton, trees fell as far away as Southampton and Hadley. Much of the state received heavy rain. Over 3,850 people in Easthampton alone were temporarily left without power. For some, this power outage lasted into the afternoon.

The two motorists on the road at the time of the storm, Bryan Lamore and Guy Ison, were escorted safely out of their vehicles and down the mountain after forty-five minutes. The firemen were forced to walk up to rescue them due to the fallen trees blocking the road.

“I wouldn’t wish this on anyone… It looks like a bomb went off around here,” said Ison in an interview with The Daily Hampshire Gazette on October 8.

Forty to fifty people worked to cut and chip the trees from the roads on that same day, many of whom were volunteers working overtime. The Pioneer Valley branch of the Red Cross was on the scene for the majority of the day.

Trees that fell through roofs as people were sleeping significantly damaged at least three homes.

The landscape on Mt. Tom has been drastically altered by the severe storm. “When Cristopher Clark Road reopens someday, regular hikers of the park will notice that narrow vistas along that stretch have turned into large panoramic views of the Valley and beyond,” reports Dan Crowley in an article in The Daily Hampshire Gazette on October 13, 2014. It is predicted that some of the affects such as the falling of trees on the mountain may help forest diversification positively for that stretch in the future.

Mountain Road reopened to the public at approximately 3 p.m. on Friday, October 10th, although caution is still advised, especially with the possibility of more winds or snow in the future.