I was out with my 96 year old buff buddy Ken Kelly. We had come out of one of his favorite restaurants around 4 pm. We went inside for a dinner because it really wasn't crowded at the time. When we came out, we noticed it seemed to get much hotter and more humid than when we went in as the sun was shinning.
So I'm heading back to bring Kenny home and I look into my rearview mirror where the sky is all black behind us. I never saw the sky change so quickly before. So I bring him back, drop him off and head northbound on I-95 from Bridgeport to head home. Its now just before 5 pm and I expect to hit some traffic on the way home. It's not too bad until I get to the East Haven/Branford line.
As we slowly move along I start to see trees down along the highway. There are also large flooded areas along the highway. There is NO traffic flowing in the other (southbound) direction.
For about 2-3 miles I see huge trees and branches along the side of the road and huge trees and branches blocking the (other) S/B lanes. Once I get through that Branford area, I see I-95 totally closed to traffic southbound by the State Police, with the State DOT out there clearing the highway of fallen trees and branches. As I travel along, traffic in the other southbound direction is backed up for maybe 15 miles.
As I travel home the next 50 miles or so, I see numerous Utility trucks headed in that southbound direction apparently to assist in that hard hit area.
For me, I have never seen anything like it, where one area is hit so hard while other surrounding areas have no damage at all. Or where the sun could be shinning bright and looking the other way there is total darkness in the sky.
If I remember correctly, I think a tornado had hit that same area (Hamden, etc) about three years ago. I also remember another tornado hitting the Bradley Airport area in Windsor Locks/Hartford area where small planes were flipped over.
Another tornado hit Bridgeport many years ago and I remember the entire top floor of a 4 brick "H" type being ripped off.
For most of the state we had no damage at all and did NOT loose power at all, unlike "Storm Isaiah" a very short while ago where some lost power for up to one week.
Hopefully people in that tornado area should have power restored much sooner with the mutual aid utility personnel working in that area of Connecticut. So many of them still recovering from that previous storm, now this tornado.
