Tree comes down on porch of Falls home

NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (WIVB) - The strong wind gusts have caused plenty of damage around western New York.

Look up as you drive the 198 west toward the 190 interchange, and you'll notice a very big hole in the sky. Fierce winds tore down a billboard and sent it smashing onto a walking path Saturday morning. By good fortune, no one was around.

The owner of a Niagara Falls home is less fortunate. Winds toppled a 40-foot tree onto the house, taking out half the porch and ripping the tree's substantial roots right out of the yard. The caller who alerted our newsroom to the damage told us the only way to get around the porch is by using a ladder. A neighbor's house, she said, also took a hit.

>> See more photos of storm damage caused by high winds from around western New York here

Niagara Falls Arborist Paul Dickinson said, "We've got a payloader, some empty tandems. We'll start trying to remove it, away from the house, and remove the wood. Probably a couple hours, for this one."

Highway and utility workers across western New York spent dozens of man-hours clearing roads, hauling away tree limbs, and repairing downed power lines.

"We started at five o'clock this morning; [that's when] we got the first call. Our first priority is to open up all the streets for emergency vehicles. We just took a couple of limbs off the top of cars, so people could get out of the driveway," explained Dickinson.

According to the National Weather Service, the strongest gust to hit the region since the winds' overnight onset clocked in at 69 miles-per-hour. It hit the Niagara Falls International Airport just after 4 a.m.

Lake Erie continues to churn and splash with the wind, prompting a lakeshore flood advisory through the evening hours on Saturday. You can get all the latest weather alerts here.

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Tree comes down on porch of Falls home