Update: The weather service has confirmed that it was a tornado that struck Verona Friday afternoon. More details will follow later today, such as wind speed.

Verona, N.Y. -- Mike and Becky Davis were driving along Route 365 on their way to Old Forge when the tornado warning appeared on Becky's cell phone.

Almost instantly, Mike Davis said, a piece of roofing torn from a nearby house slammed into the side of the travel trailer. Davis slammed the brakes just in time to avoid a snapped-off utility pole, the nose of the pickup ending up just a few feet from the pole.

Heavy utility wires covered the truck and trailer. Davis said and his wife climbed out the passenger side and got their beagle, Belle, out of the trailer, where her crate had been flipped upside down.

The high winds snapped seven utility poles on route 365 about five miles southwest of Turning Stone Resort and Casino. The road remains closed.

"I've never seen anything like this," said Dan Appler, deputy director of the Oneida County Emergency Services Office.

No injuries were reported. The storm hit just after 5 p.m.

Trees on both side of the road were snapped off, although there was little damage to houses. Large sections of black roofing was torn off a building on the east side of the street and scattered in a curved line across the street.

Neighbors said the sky suddenly turned dark about 5 p.m. when the tornado warning went off on their phones. Wendy Chamberlain ran to close her front window when she saw a wicker lawn chair blow off the porch. She ran and jumped in the bathtub, she said.

Another neighbor, Brianna Navolis, said she was home alone when the storm hit.

"The whole house started shaking, and everything looked black outside," Navolis said. "Then I heard boom-boom-boom-boom when the poles fell."

The National Weather Service had issued a tornado warning for that area about 4:45 p.m., and shortly afterward issued a severe thunderstorm warning.

It's not clear if the Verona damage was caused by a tornado. That determination can only be made by an investigation by the weather service.

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