Brookfield, May 2018: "Is It Over Yet?"

BROOKFIELD, CT -- A month that would be begin as most in Brookfield -- uneventful, some fretting over rising taxes, honors heaped upon the town's hard workers and other winners, and candidates tossing their hats into one ring or another. The only bit of True Crime-esque drama involving a Brookfield resident actually occurred out of town in Meriden. It was no surprise, then, that the Brookfield Patch's hottest story across social media the first two weeks in May was about Rich Farm Ice Cream coming to town.

Brookfielders do love their food.

All that was to change, in startling fashion. Just two days after our celebration of Brookfield moms and their lookalike daughters, the town and much of southwestern Connecticut would get turned upside down by a savage swipe from Mother Nature.

Sudden heavy rains, winds, tornadoes and something meteorologists call a "macroburst" -- an area of strong, downward moving air associated with a downdraft from a thunderstorm, spanning less than 2.5 miles -- rammed into Brookfield at the height of afternoon rush hour on Tuesday, May 15.

Brookfield, town officials wasted no time informing us, was a disaster area, a necessary first step in its bid for FEMA funding. As the power outage dragged on and crews struggled to remove downed trees, a chainsaw-wielding contingent of Connecticut National Guard was activated, to cheers heard throughout social media. School children cheered as well, enjoying so many days off from class that the Brookfield School Board worried they would not be able to get in the state-mandated minimum before the start of July. While the disaster brought out the best in people, as disasters often will, it also gave us a gander at the darker side of human nature as well.

Town police, fire and EMS teams worked around the clock to keep order and everyone safe, and as lights gradually came on and the hum of generators lowered, Brookfield celebrated: with food, of course. Franco's re-opened down the road from its former address with a festive ribbon-cutting ceremony, and our next big non-weather story moved with the announcement that gourmet burger chain Burgerim would be opening a restaurant in town next month.

Recovery will be ongoing, and the town's Memorial Day parade was a casualty of the cleanup efforts. Someone only need glimpse a little bit of the Godzilla movie breakage to realize it will be a long while before everything in town is firing on all cylinders.

Finally, because News Serves No Master Save Irony (don't bother Googling, we just made that up...), the town chose these moments to announce it was embarking upon a new program to "go solar."

Contemplate that as you wait for the Brookfield FD to release information on how you can help fund their efforts with the purchase of their new "#BrookfieldStrong" shirts. We'll have that info here on The Patch as soon as it is available.

T-Shirt Design by Dan McKee

Wreckage Photo Contributed by Kelly Manning