Windmill Hits the Ground by Karen Lee

FENNER, N.Y. -- A windmill that stretched more than 300 feet into the sky, crashed to the ground early Sunday morning.

"There was no wind or nothing, just calm and quiet out. I just heard a noise and it was just like thunder and lighting. It went boom," said Marvin Deking, who lives across the street.

"It's just amazing to see it down like that. We've seen them when they were first putting them up but not like this," said Vickie Roberts, a Perryville resident.

The windmill is located near Buyea Road and is part of the Fenner Wind Farm, operated by Enel North America.

Buyea Road is about a quarter to half-a-mile from where the windmill stood, and with nothing else in its vicinity, there was no real danger to the people who live here.

"Nobody was hurt. It's well-designed, there's plenty of safety built into the farm," said Russell Cary, the Fenner town supervisor.

Crews secured the scene throughout the day as they waited for Enel officials to arrive and begin the investigation.

"This is a lesson we're going to learn and hopefully make the whole process better and I'm sure they'll be checking other ones also, once they realize what really happened," said Carey.

Nineteen other turbines generate electricity for the wind farm. It'll cost approximately $2 million to $3 million to repair the windmill.

Enel officials arrived on scene Sunday evening to begin their investigation. They don't expect to find out what caused the collapse until at least until Monday.

The remaining turbines on the wind farm have been turned off for the time-being.