VERNON, Connecticut — In Vernon and Manchester gusts of wind brought down trees and power lines across roads.
Debris was so widespread that you couldn’t see the ground on some streets.
"Oh my God! It’s a tornado," Shawna Bailey’s daughter told her as she saw a gust of wind knock down a tree outside their Vernon home. “I peeked my head out a little bit; saw the gust of wind, saw lightning, the tree started to come down. I grabbed my dog up and I ran.”
The tree would have leveled Jacob Shoplick’s house. Thankfully, it fell away.
“It could have been a lot worse. I’m grateful our cars weren’t here and everybody’s okay,” he says.
Huge wind gusts in Vernon uprooted trees and sent power lines to the ground.
Trees tumbled on houses and trampolines flew across property lines. Thankfully, no one reported injuries.
“I don’t have power now,” says Matthew Orefice in Manchester. “It’s going to be hard to take a shower with well water, the pump being underground, so that’ll be a struggle to deal with.”
Where Phoenix Street in Vernon turns to Vernon Street in Manchester, trees fell across multiple properties and debris littered the road.
Sam Ricciari’s table blew over. The glass on top shattered on his lawn. And he saw his neighbors tree fall across his fence.
“I heard something crack and I was at the computer and I looked out the window and saw the other part come down,” he says. “We needed a lot of rain, but not the wind.”
Meanwhile down the road, where the Orefice’s didn’t have any power, neighbor James Tracy started up his generator that he bought Monday.
“I went inside and actually turned on all the switches, so everything is looking good. Water pump; the A/C is on now,” says Tracy.
We already saw tree crews assessing damage but tomorrow is when a lot of cleanup for big trees will happen.
