BRANFORD, Conn. — There were over a dozen tornado warnings posted between Friday and Saturday for parts of New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Four twisters were confirmed to have touched down in CT late Saturday afternoon.
In the cul-de-sac on Whiting Farm Road in Branford, tree tops were twisted off, as if they had been placed in a blender.
"I could hear the tornado coming," Christena Temple, a resident on the street, told FOX61. "This is the second one that hit us. The first one hit us in the backyard. It caused a lot of damage about two years ago."
And yes -- she said, it did sound like a freight train.
"Within seconds all the trees just snapped in half all at once and I was screaming up to my husband to get into the basement," Temple added.
Like Branford, a neighborhood in the Pawcatuck section of Stonington had very concentrated, decisive damage.
"I mean I couldn’t believe it," Joe Wilkos said. "These trees are huge. Like two 60-foot pine trees up by the roots. I mean I couldn’t believe those came down so easily."
Another resident on Stillman Avenue told FOX61 it sounded like every window in the house was going to implode. His kids' trampoline was still hanging from a tree Monday morning.
"The entire house was shaking almost like a, it felt like a freight train," he added.
But, he says his family feels extremely fortunate.
"I looked outside and saw that my 60-foot tree had crushed my poor neighbors pool," the man said.
And one of his neighbor's thick limbs helped pancake the pool.
"My daughter asked if it was a tornado and I said 'I don’t think so' and then yesterday we found out that it was," Martha Simmons, of Pawcatuck said.
Simmons said she was watching out the windows with her older daughter.
"I didn’t think we’d have to have a Tornado plan," she said, laughing.
And, not surprising, dating back to at least 1950, this is the latest in the year a tornado has ever touched down in Connecticut.
Tornadoes were also confirmed in Cheshire and Plainfield.
Tony Terzi is a reporter at FOX61 News. He can be reached at tterzi@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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