With temperatures in the high 80s and 90s over the past few days, the only thing on most students' minds yesterday was the College's lack of air-conditioned space. Many students were holed up in such places as the Reserve Corridor, Kresge Library and Webster Hall, where cool air is abundant - and it's a good thing they were.
During a powerful thunder and lightning storm Tuesday, lightning may have struck Reed Hall, ripping the copper sheathing off its roof, huge trees were knocked down by forceful winds and rain flooded the Green and the walkway under the Hood Museum.
According to Meteorological Technician Art Lester at the National Weather Service, Tuesday's powerful storm "dumped heavy amounts of rain" - up to 1.5 inches in under an hour, in some areas - and boasted wind gusts of over 50 miles per hour.
Director of Facilities Operations and Management Michael Getter said he has not experienced a storm of such intensity at the College during his entire seven-year tenure at the College.
"It left as soon as it came, and we're lucky that it did," Getter said.
While Hanover might be unaccustomed to such weather, Lester said these storms happen frequently during New Hampshire summers.
"This is not that unusual; we've had these kind of thunderstorms all summer long," he said. Lester explained that these "burst storms" are not as common or as destructive as they are in the Midwest, but they still appear frequently in the inland Northeast. He said winds of up to 74 miles per hour were measured on Sunday night in northern New Hampshire.
Getter said although the bulk of the storm lasted only 10 minutes, Reed Hall's copper roof was ripped off the building, possibly by lightning. The roof was replaced with plastic sheeting soon after the event, a permanent replacement will be installed sometime soon, he said.
In addition, Getter said several dozen trees on campus suffered major damage and a small number of trees were completely knocked down. He said some trees that were left standing will eventually be cut down by the College because they were killed by the storm. Getter also said he saw two or three cars that were damaged by the storm, including a College van that had its front completely crushed by a huge fallen tree.
He said he knew of no one in Hanover who was hurt, but Lester said a few people throughout the state were killed due to the storm.
According to the Valley News, a man in Sanborton was crushed after a tree flattened his car. Also, a14-year-old camper from New York was shocked after unplugging a radio from his cabin wall.
Lester said he did not know the exact top-speed of the wind during the storm, but he said many "bow-echoes" - situations where burst winds cause lines on a radar screen to bow out - indicated to him that the storm was fierce. Lester estimated that the winds were at least 50 miles per hour, the speed necessary to knock down and damage entire trees.
Getter said he could not estimate the amount of damage done in dollars because his crew was still cleaning up the mess yesterday.
He said Dartmouth's "excellent tree care program ... with pruning, fertilizing and very close care" prevented more trees from being destroyed in the storm.
In addition to storms across New Hampshire, over 200,000 citizens of New York City's Washington Heights neighborhood experienced a power failure, due to an overuse of available electriciy, Tuesday which was the first of its kind in the history of Consolidated Edison.
Residents were not expected to have their power restored until late last night.
