Tornado memories
Documentary marks 40th anniversary of Windsor tornado
Windsor residents remember where they were and what they were doing on Oct. 3, 1979, when a tornado killed 3 and injured 300. The town’s historical society and WIN-TV have teamed up to create a documentary of the event.
WINDSOR — Like the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion, Windsor residents remember where they were and what they were doing on Oct. 3, 1979.
That’s the day a deadly tornado struck Windsor and Windsor Locks, killing three people and injuring more than 300. The surprise twister caused almost $180 million in damages and devastated the Colonial Village housing development and the Poquonock neighborhood.
“A lot of the adults thought it was a bomb,” said Jenny Hawran, who was a Sage Park Middle School student and lived nearby in the Rivers Bend.
Hawran remembers her sister driving to pick her up at the bus stop because of the rain and extremely dark skies and then turning on the TV to learn about the destruction in Windsor and Windsor Locks. She also remembers kids whose homes were destroyed and who lost their possessions. She recalled seeing students wearing clothes donated by Bob’s Stores and a friend coming to school with a gash in her head.
Today, Hawran is the executive director of WIN-TV, the town’s public access television station. Working with Christine Ermenc, executive director or the Windsor Historical Society, the two organizations spent the last year producing the documentary, “Windsor Phoenix: Remembering the 1979 Tornado.” The film will premiere 7 p.m. Thursday at Poquonock School.
Organizers interviewed more than 40 people about their experiences related to the category F-4 tornado and its aftermath.
They were surprised by a few of the people who reached out, including Colonial Village resident Thom Dembkowski, whose
mother was killed in the tornado, and the widow and daughter of William Kowalsky, 24, of Manchester, who was in a truck with two other men riding out the storm on the WindsorWindsor Locks town line when an object came through the windshield and killed him.
“Thom Dembowski has never spoke publicly about this,” Ermenc said. “He wanted to set it down.”
Hawran said the call from Kowalsky's widow, Suzanne Kitchen, came about six weeks ago and that initially she told her that they were done with interviews.
“She was quiet, and then she said, ‘My husband was the first one killed.'” Hawran said. “When they came in, they were already
crying. They said afterward that it was very cathartic.”
Hawran said the sheer volume of the interviews made it impossible to include them in their entirety in the film. But they will be available at full length on YouTube.
Beginning Oct. 3 and through the end of the year, the historical society will also host an exhibit of tornado-related materials that residents have collected.
Ermenc said her goal is to show how people rise to the occasion in times of trouble and how their lives are affected by it 40 years later.
“I hope they can see the story of a community coming together,” she said.
Tickets, available at windsorhistoricalsociety.org or at the door, are $6 for adults, $5 for seniors and $4 for Windsor Historical Society members and WINTV affiliated.