WESTERNVILLE, COUNTY, N.Y. (WUTR/WFXV/WPNY) – Back in July, a tornado touched down at Woods Valley Ski Area. We spoke with owner and president Tim Woods about how they have recovered as they prepare for their opening weekend.

“Tornado touched down around 8 o’clock at night and then for 6 minutes wreaked havoc here. Started on our property here at the ski area and then made its way for about two and a half miles through the Village of Westernville,” said Tim Woods.

Woods explains that they’ve had significant damage on the slopes that they’ve been working to clean up.

“It damaged our maintenance facility, the bases of our T-bar lift, our two chair lifts, the bottom terminal buildings were damaged. The critical equipment however was undamaged because of steel frames and very rugged stuff, but the skin that encloses those were damaged and replaced. Our tubing carpet lift had many, many trees down on top of it. We’ve had to replace a bunch of components there.” said Wood.

In addition to those damages, they’ve had to replace snow guns, lighting towers, and will continue to plant trees that have been knocked down. As a resident of Westernville, Woods says that the damage on his business and home, as well as around the town was difficult to see.

“It’ll take time, but things are already starting to look good here again.” said Woods

Woods Valley is currently in the second phase of a two-year reconstruction project. Woods says luckily the tornado did not set back their renovations. However, supply chains issues are causing some delays.

“Lumber prices spiked this summer and have started to come down. It’s just supplies, you know. There are delays for everything, so that’s impacting us,” said Woods.

Woods Valley Ski Area is set to open Saturday, December 11th.