The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Homes damaged after intense storm
WINSTED — Wednesday morning may have been a boon for tree service companies around Winsted, but residents whose homes were damaged by Tuesday afternoon’s intense storm were a bit stunned by the aftermath.
“Whatever it was, it was bad,” said Dave Arthur of Walnut Street He lives in a historic home built in 1901, which sustained roof damage.
Arthur pointed out “two huge maples which twisted and came down” in his side yard. All up and down Walnut Street, residents were cutting up trunks and branches from hardwood trees that one homeowner said were at least 50 years old.
“To do this in a manner of seconds,” was hard to believe, Arthur said. “I was in the living room and ‘boom,’ the tree crashed up against the roof.”
A homeowner on Walnut Street, who asked not to be named, said she headed to the basement when she heard there was a tornado warning.
“We were lucky no one was harmed,” the homeowner said.”
She’s lived in the circa-1890 home for 28 years. The upstairs bedroom closet was damaged when “a beautiful old maple” hit the roof, she said. The homeowner quickly called a tree service, which arrived Tuesday afternoon to begin clearing the downed limbs and partial trunks broken by the force of the wind. By Wednesday morning, two mobile cranes flanked the house, while workers in aerial buckets cut five-feet long pieces of tree trunks and lowered them to crew members waiting on the ground.
The need for tree removal services was so immediate, and the number of available crews so small, those whose homes had been damaged were driving around the Maple Street neighborhood to directly ask crew members for their business cards, in hopes of finding a professional company to clear their property.
Town Manager Robert Geiger said on Wednesday afternoon that the biggest problem was having to close Main Street/Route 44, because two power poles were cracked. Crews from Eversource restored power to the area in about five hours, he said.
He noted that the neighborhood around Walnut and Beach Streets was “the worst area.”
“The tops of trees were sheared off,” he said.
Geiger said he personally doesn’t think the damage was caused by a tornado.
“I think it was a microburst,” he said. No residents needed to be relocated or rescued as a result of the storm, Geiger said.
Walter Benedict, who lives on the corner of Beach and North Main Streets, said he had expected a normal storm. He heard the wind and went outside to see what was happening.
“It was very eerie,” he said. “You could feel the pressure and energy of the storm.”
Benedict, 74, said the weather was so intense, he went back inside where it was safer. Benedict didn’t call a tree service company. He was doing the work himself.
“I used a bow saw and an ax,” he said.
He lost power for about 10 hours, but his neighbors at 259 North Main St. were still without power at mid-afternoon on Wednesday. A tenant in the multifamily home, who asked not to be named, said the storm “ripped off our electric meters.” She didn’t expect power to be restored for about 24 hours.
Woodruff Road was closed Wednesday morning due to a downed power line, but by mid-morning the road was reopened.
Along the easement of North Main Street near Beach Street, a state crew was feeding branches and debris into a wood chipper. Mike Coleman, a 15year veteran of the state Department of Transportation, said he’s seen a couple storms like the one Tuesday night.
“But not this bad,” he said.
The National Weather Service announced that a team would be sent to survey storm damage in Connecticut Wednesday. A final assessment of the incident is planned by 8 p.m., according to the NWS.
At the height of the storm, well over 100,000 Eversource customers in Connecticut were without power. Most of the power was restored in Winsted by Wednesday afternoon, but other towns in Connecticut weren’t as lucky.
During a news conference in Brookfield, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said due to the extensive damage caused by the storm, power won’t likely be restored to some locations for days. Malloy surveyed damage Wednesday in several towns including Brookfield, where about 85 percent of the nearly 8,400 homes and businesses were still without power. Southbury and Danbury were also hit hard.
The Brookfield Police Department said on its Facebook page that First Selectman Steve Dunn had “declared a town disaster.”
Torrington escaped damage, with no downed lines or closed streets reported, police said.
A man was killed when a tree fell on his truck, according to Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton. A teenager also sustained serious injuries when he was hit by the roof of a dugout on a baseball field, Boughton said.
In New Milford, Mayor Pete Bass declared a state of emergency Tuesday night. On Wednesday, the town’s schools were closed to allow cleanup crews to remove trees and restore power lines.
Ross Dickman, meteorologist with the New York City branch of the National Weather Service, said the team was aiming to determine what sort of whether event produced the damage in the area, looking for evidence of a tornado or straight line winds. He mentioned a tornado or microburst as possibilities.
“Hopefully, today we get some answers for people that’d like to know,” said Dickman.
The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection announced that seven state parks would be closed Wednesday, and that some may stay closed for several days due to the extensive damage.
“There is extensive storm damage to a number of Connecticut State Parks and Forests throughout the most affected areas of the state,” said Chris Collibee of DEEP in a release. “Those Parks will remain closed until an assessment can be made of damage. We strongly urge the public to stay out of these parks and any other area with obvious tree damage until this assessment and hazard mitigation can take place.”
Malloy also announced that the Connecticut Insurance Department has activated its emergency adjuster program that allows insurance companies to quickly register their out-of-state adjusters and bring them into the state to help with claims of property and auto damage.
“We want to make sure that homeowners get help as quickly as possible from their insurance companies,” Insurance Commissioner Katharine Wade said in a release. “By activating this program, insurance companies are able to quickly get more help on the ground where it’s most needed.”
Residents and business who have insurance questions and concerns related to property damage can contact the Connecticut Insurance Department at insurance@ct.gov.