Violent Winds Monday Night Take Down Tree On Matteawan School Sidewalk Path

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At long last, one of the large trees on the paved path between the student track and Matteawan Road came down during the violent winds on Monday evening. After most storms involving heavy winds, thick branches from these trees fall onto the path. The branches are moved periodically throughout the day. This tree broke at its base, completely covering the path that students take to school each morning, crushed the fence beneath it, and spilled into the road.

Beacon’s Highway Department responded to the scene to remove the tree on Tuesday morning, blocking school traffic from going down Matteawan Road so that the tree could be carted away in trucks branch by branch, thus causing vehicular confusion at the intersection of Matteawan and Verplanck for parents, grandparents and students driving to school. This is one of the most heavily trafficked areas in Beacon at that hour, as resident vehicles are en route to school, as well as trucks from the Highway and Water Departments to begin their days.

At the intersection of Matteawan and Verplanck, a Highway Department employee parked and directed traffic to turn around to find another way to school. The other way to school, aside from going down Rte 52 to come through the Fishkill Corrections Facility, would be to come down Wilkes Street along the baseball fields of Memorial Park, pop out at Matteawan where the road was closed, and take a right to continue on to the middle and high schools.

The trees are rooted on the track-side of the fence. ALBB is awaiting confirmation on whose property they are on - school or city.

On January 7th, 2026, the City of Beacon terminated one of the Highway Department employees who is also a professional tree trimmer, according to the Letter of Termination he received that ALBB has seen. This former employee had his own tree trimming business. He was terminated the day after filing a complaint on January 6th, 2026, which included multiple citations of harassment and retaliation he said he experienced while working for the City of Beacon, according to the complaint that ALBB has seen.

One of his examples was an incident that took place while removing a rotten tree at Green Street Park, where he said he voiced concern that the Highway Department crew responding to the job “did not have proper equipment to safely handle the job,” according to the complaint filing. While his complaint stated that he did not refuse to do the job, he said in his complaint that he was reprimanded later that day by his department head after vocalizing his concerns.

Central Hudson cited 250 damage locations they are responding to in their quest to restore power to those who lost it.

Sudden Storm And Fallen Tree Brings Power Outage To Some Beaconites; Closes Beekman Street

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UPDATE 1:30pm 12/3/2021: Central Hudson has responded with what caused the power outage. Please see below for the full explanation.

On the 5th night of Hanukkah, while candles were still burning and lights were glowing in homes, the power went out. From outside their windows of newly darkened rooms, some Beaconites saw flickering flashes of white light across the dark western sky, reminiscent of distant summer fireworks or lightening. The night was windy. Not all Beaconites even realized there was a storm until the power went out and some heard a loud explosion and saw the white lights.

Had the aliens finally landed? Was it happening? “I saw the white light and definitely thought alien invasion,” said one reader @laur1025. “Sigh. I’d welcome aliens at this point,” said another reader, @devaw. “Power still out in what has truly become an alternate universe,” said @scottxny, after the day closed with news from the Supreme Court making quite a few people upset.

The Source Of The White Lights

One reader saw two fire trucks arrive to the scene. One of A Little Beacon Blog’s citizen reporters, Brianne McDowell, was on the case moments after the explosion to find the source. She found the downed tree and pole on Beekman Street where High Street comes into it. High Street is the first street off Beekman as you’re headed to the train station, with the Victorian homes lining the steep hill, across the street from Spire Studios and Ron English’s PopMart. The picture of the down pole and tree on Thursday night is below.

Down power line across High Street. Down tree across Beekman Street. Both across from the Beacon Police Station and the new apartment buildings, The View on Thursday, December 2, 2021.
Photo Credit: Brianne McDowell

Moments after the flash, at least one pole was down on the ground, blocking High Street, across from the Beacon Police Station. A large tree had broken at the base and fallen across Beekman Street.

Thursday evening, one reader @jackoflackoflames, saw “crews out there working on the exploded transformer/tree now. Road still closed.”

By Friday morning, Beekman Street remained closed to cars, but pedestrians could continue walking to the MTA train station on the grass. Beacon’s Highway Department was on the scene Friday morning, cutting the fallen tree to remove it from the road. By Friday morning, the downed power line was gone, and power had been restored to several customers near Main Street.

The traffic light at 9D and Main Street was out, as were the crosswalk signals (there are new electric crosswalk signals that improve accessibility by beeping a signal calling the person to “Wait!” and then verbally announces which street one can cross).

Homes on High Street. The fallen power line and tree were at the base of High Street, across from the Police Station.
Photo Credit: Katie Hellmuth Martin

Photo Credits: Katie Hellmuth Martin

The flash storm took many by surprise. Usually Central Hudson and Optimum send emails warning about an upcoming storm that may cause a power outage. Neither had sent an email this time. “The rain was horizontal. I couldn’t believe it,” said reader @call.me.ella.mar. Murphy’s Law prevailed once again for an unexpected storm in Beacon. The last was remnants of Hurricane Ida, resulting in federal aid through FEMA.

Another reader, Patti Devine, wondered if the new construction being built in that area, which has eliminated several trees and replaced with solid structures, caused a wind vortex. Wind vortexes whip through building blocks in New York City. “My friend on High Street right there has had 2 trees fall on her house in the last couple of years,” Patti said. “Anyone think that maybe all the buildings there has caused a [wind] vortex in that area? Take down all those trees, and the storm has a new path to follow.”

ALBB is seeking confirmation on if the source of the fall is known. If it was lightening, a microburst, a tiny tornado, or other known weather condition.

The morning after the power line was cleared by Central Hudson. The City of Beacon’s Highway Department works to cut the tree in the middle of Beekman Street.
Photo Credit: Katie Hellmuth Martin

About 4,300 Power Outages Throughout Central Hudson Service Area

According to John Maserjian, Media Relations Director for Central Hudson, several people were impacted by the storm. Upon responding to ALBB to confirm details, John said: “As of now, there are currently about 4,300 outages throughout Central Hudson’s service area, mostly on the west side of the Hudson River, caused by high winds and trees.”

John responded with an explanation of what caused the power outage: “Our electric line foreman reports that a burst if wind toppled a tree onto the pole on Beekman street, breaking the pole and causing it to fall. There was no transformer on the pole, rather there was mechanical piece of equipment called an Automatic Load Transfer (ALT) device (this device automatically re-routes power when needed to reduce the duration of outages, for example during storms). The flash of light was not an explosion, rather arcing wires as they fell. This highlights why it’s very important to stay at least 30 feet away from downed power lines, as they may still be energized.

“The pole was replaced and repairs made last night/early morning. A new ALT will be re-installed in one to two weeks. The majority of the outages in Beacon was due to this fallen pole. Upon their arrival, crews first manually re-routed power to restore service to most of households as quickly as possible, and then went to work to replace the pole.”

According to the Beacon Police Department, the storm went from west to east in Beacon, with residents feeling the effects over on Red School House Road. The Beacon Police Department does have a generator that can kick in when the power goes out. They noted that power went out down 9D and Verplanck, Beekman, and possibly down to Matteawan (near the Beacon High School track).

Serious Comedy Theatre performers in the Old Beacon High School on the corner of Fishkill Avenue and Verplanck wrote in to say that their building did have power, but that their home near the mountain had lost power overnight.

This is a developing story. Updates will be made to this article, or a new article depending.

Stay safe!

Huge Winds Christmas Eve Bring Power Outages To Beacon And Surrounding Area

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Winds of up to 50 mph in some areas were barreling through drafty windows of homes in the region on Thursday evening, Christmas Eve, into the early hours of Christmas morning. Anyone who was still wrapping presents at 2:45am felt the windows shake, while some felt their entire houses shake. Little children snug in their beds may have woken up early from the sound of their bedroom doors shivering in their doorknob latches, as the wind whipped through the house. New homeowners in the area may have awoken to new attic leaks that they knew nothing about, or basement flooding, shed flooding, and/or a power outage.

As reported by Central Hudson, the power company’s repair crews “are working throughout the service area to restore power to customers after heavy rains and wind gusts of more than 50 mph in some areas toppled limbs and trees, causing widespread outages. More than 36,000 homes and businesses within Central Hudson’s service area and nearly 300,000 customers in the northeast were impacted by the storm.”

In Dutchess County, 14,095 customers were without power as of 10am Friday morning. As of 1:30pm that number was 13,700. Ryan Hawthorne, Assistant Vice President of Electric Engineering and Operations, outlined how mutual aid has come in to help this area with additional workers. “We have a compliment of 320 line and tree professionals working to restore our customers’ power with 26 more line workers from Vermont expected to arrive later today. Yesterday, mutual aid assistance from Michigan, Indiana and Iowa arrived, and we have retained our local contractors to assist in the repair of nearly 650 damage locations. In addition, hundreds of employees are working in support roles throughout the holiday to expedite restorations. We aim to restore power to approximately half of our customers by end of day Friday.”

Central Hudson will be distributing dry ice on Friday from noon to 5 p.m. at these locations:

Home Depot, Fishkill – 450 Route 9, Fishkill, NY 12524

Rosendale Recreation Center – 1055 Route 32, Rosendale, NY 12472