Date: Fri 24-May-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

weather-storm-trees

Full Text:

Storm Highlights A Week Of Extreme Weather

A brief spring storm with powerful gusts of wind swept through Newtown Tuesday

afternoon, toppling trees, knocking down utility wires and leaving parts of

the town without power.

Firefighters raced all over town responding to reports of wires down and

burning on Lake Road, Castle Hill Road, Bennett's Bridge Road, Cherry Street,

Pocono Road and Elm Drive. Other volunteers pitched in, including Art Neale

and Ron Shook of Brookfield who helped direct traffic around downed trees on

Elm Drive.

Elm Drive was hard it. The winds roared down the street, knocking down trees

and closing the road. One tree fell in the front yard of Bee Publisher R.

Scudder Smith, smashing the windshield of a car parked in the driveway.

Coincidentally, just moments before, winds ripped a large section off a

75-foot maple and slammed it down on the roof of The Bee office on Church Hill

Road, breaking a skylight.

The storm knocked a tree down in front of the Hook & Ladder Firehouse behind

Edmond Town Hall, blocking one engine in the firehouse. Another tree fell

partially across the entrance to the town hall parking lot, forcing

firefighters responding to calls to drive over the lawn.

At the start of the storm South Main Street was closed for more than a hour

after a car and a pickup truck collided just south of the former Centerbank

office. Fallen tree limbs lay between the long lines of vehicles stopped in

the southbound and northbound lanes.

A 300-lb table was lifted from the deck at the home of Cheryl Fatse on High

Rock Road, thrown over the railing and smashed onto the ground, breaking the

table's glass top.

Minor damage was done by falling trees at Middle Gate School and the high

school.

When the storm started about 3 pm Tuesday, whirlwinds swirled across the

landscape, raising 15-foot-tall dust devils as they blew over sandy fields

recently excavated for sewer installation.

The skies above South Main Street turned a deep, opaque charcoal grey, edged

with the green color casts which often accompany funnel clouds. Hail the size

of sugar cubes bounced on the pavement.

The large flag on the Main Street flagpole flapped so violently, it sounded to

passersby like someone rapidly striking a sheet of plywood with a

sledgehammer.

Wind gusts of more than 50 miles per hour were recorded at the peak of the

storm.

"It's a nightmare," said dispatcher Carol Mayhew as calls for assistance came

repeatedly in to the 911 dispatch center over the space of several hours and

responses by emergency crews had to be coordinated.

Northeast Utilities reported that nearly 78,000 customers across the state

lost power, including 15,843 in the Danbury area. The hardest hit towns were

Bethel, Brookfield, Danbury, New Fairfield, New Milford and Newtown. Most

power was restored Tuesday evening; a few scattered outages lasted until

Wednesday.

If there was anything positive about this week's storm, it blew out the muggy,

hot weather system that had been entrenched in the Danbury area since Sunday.

Almost overnight temperatures rose to record highs, with the top reading of 99

degrees at Bradley International Airport on Monday breaking the record of 94

set in 1975.

A 97 reading in Bridgeport broke the old record of 88 set for that date in

1975 and was the highest ever recorded in May. It was slightly cooler in the

Danbury area where the Weather Center at Western Connecticut University said

the temperature was 93.

At 2:10 pm Tuesday the mercury at the weather station stood at 91.4 degrees,

one degree higher than the record set in 1992. By 3 pm, the temperature had

dropped to 71 degrees.