A tornado Thursday afternoon tore through the center of Dublin, doing significant damage and leaving hundreds of residents without power late into the night.

A storm team from the National Weather Service (NWS) office in Gray, Maine, confirmed that the damage was consistent with an EF-1 tornado with maximum wind speeds of up to 95 mph. Previously, it was believed to have been a microburst, which is a gust of downward wind rather than the upward-pulling funnel of a tornado. The path of the storm passed along the center of Dublin, then to the Dublin School, where trees were left mangled and a school vehicle was crushed by debris. No injuries were reported, despite the Walden School Young Musicians Program being in session. 

The National Weather Service (NWS) sent a team of forecasters from Gray to assess the damage. Following the assessment, it was determined that the Dublin School took the brunt of the damage from the storm. 

“Dublin School looks like it had some of the strongest winds that we saw,” said forecaster Donny Dumont, who was at the scene. “In general, we estimate the wind speeds were topping out around 90 mph … which is considered weak still, but obviously more than significant for damage. So we saw some building damage, mostly siding, shingle damage and broken windows from debris. And we saw a lot of tree damage, too, in that area.”

Overall, Dumont said the tornado’s path was approximately 10 to 11 miles.

“So there were hundreds and hundreds of trees down along this path. The path was relatively narrow,” he said. “In some places it was only about you know 50 to 75 yards wide. Looking at the widest the path ever got was about 200 yards wide, which was actually pretty close in the vicinity of the Dublin School itself.”

Among those hundreds left without power was the Dublin Police Department. The station was run on auxiliary generator power until power was restored.

“They had a significant amount of trees come down,” said Police Chief Timothy Suokko. “I think a couple of their buildings took some damage from some downed trees. But it was pretty extensive, they've got three crews up there right now cleaning everything up.

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Route 101 was closed for nearly six hours, along with Dublin Road, due to downed trees and power lines. Once the roads were cleared of debris, traffic patterns were restored on Thursday evening. The Department of Transportation (DOT) is heading cleanup operations in conjunction with the town. 

Downed lines left nearly 900 residents of Dublin without power from approximately 3 p.m. to midnight or later. 

“I live in Dublin and I didn't get my electricity back until midnight last night,” said Police Administrator Vira Elder. “Then we lost it again for a little bit and then it came back.”

Carol Connare, an editor for The Old Farmer’s Almanac, was huddled in the basement of the Yankee Publishing headquarters on Main Street. At approximately 2:45 p.m., there was a simultaneous tornado warning on cellphones across the office as rumors circulated of a tornado touchdown in the area. It was at this point that those working onsite in the building rushed to the windowless basement. 

“Around three, we started to get into the basement, there's probably maybe a few more than a dozen people [in the basement],” said Connare. “So none of us saw anything and the power went out.”

It was while they were in the dark basement that the sounds of the storm became evident. 

“When the power went out, all of this buzzing started to happen,” said Connare. “So we're in the basement with a lot of just like darkness and buzzing.”

A window in the building was blown open by the winds  and an event tent that was pitched outside the building was blown down. Those in the basement checked their phones diligently for any word of roads in the area opening as to leave the property. 

“I know one of my colleagues was headed toward Bedford and Goffstown and so we just kept checking the roads to see if they were open,” said Connare. “So that's basically what we were doing most of the afternoon just so people could get out of here.”