About a third of Barrington homes remained without power Saturday morning, about 36 hours after a brief but intensely powerful storm ripped through the region before dusk on Thursday, July 3.

Though forecasters warned of the potential for severe thunderstorms that evening, few anticipated the massive power unleashed in a 30-minute rampage. After turning a deep, dark gray, the skies erupted with torrential rain that briefly flooded streets and blinded motorists, many of whom pulled over with their flashers on because they could not see the road in front of them.

Lightning crackled across the horizon, with dozens of strikes visible across all areas. Worst of all was the wind, which violently shook the tops of trees, ripping off branches and shearing through trunks. In an instant, the entire town of Barrington lost power.

Crews restored power to some areas within a matter of hours, but thousands of home remain dark. Though there are snapped limbs and storm damages throughout town, worst hit was the northwest area of town, from Bay Spring Avenue toward Primrose Elementary School.

The dense cluster of homes near the Sherwood baseball field are without power, with trees toppled or limbs snapped every few houses. It looked like a troll swinging a massive club stomped through the streets around Sherwood Lane and Hemlock Drive, violently snapping trees from west to east as it passed.

Many trees remain lying on top of power lines, with the hum of generators audible throughout the streets.

Kara Dalessio of 3 Hemlock Drive was standing in her yard and chatting with a utility worker as trucks were rolling into the neighborhood Saturday morning. Dalessio was home with family Thursday night when they heard wind whipping through the air conditioner running in a bedroom. “We were like, ‘what’s that noise?’ It was hissing through the windows. We ran out to the garage and we watched that tree come down across the driveway. I was like, ‘Our cars!’ ”

A tree near the intersection of Hemlock and Sherwood fell across their driveway, burying two cars beneath limbs, snapping a utility pole and pulling down wires. Another tree fell in their front yard, where it remained Saturday morning, draped across another stretch of utility wires.

“We just tried to shelter in place beside load-bearing walls, just to get through it. The wind was crazy. It was insane,” Dalessio said.

A few steps away from the Dalessios’ house, an enormous tree fell across a house on County Road, crushing the roof and completely engulfing the one-level home in trunk and limbs.

Tree damages are visible through all areas of town, with limbs and trunks snapped through the Hampden Meadows area as well. A Maple Avenue tree snapped and pulled down a utility pole and wires as it fell. The same happened along Washington Road, across from the fourth hole at the Rhode Island Country Club, where a huge tree fell across the road and brought down a utility pole. On Saturday morning, a crew with seven trucks were working to re-set that utility pole and wires.

At around 10 a.m. Saturday morning, nearly 2,000 Barrington homes remained without power.