Storm Leaves Path of Destruction in North Central Connecticut

Residents of the area woke up to a sizable cleanup effort on Monday after a rain and windstorm ravaged the region overnight and left a trail of power outages, downed trees and water damage.

One could arguably call it "Raintober" because the storm came in with an eerie coincidence to the infamous "Snowtober" blizzard that happened on Oct. 29 into Oct. 30 in 2011.

There was no snow, but torrential rains and high winds.

"We were able to apply some lessons learned from six years ago to this latest storm," Vernon Town Administrator and Emergency Management Director Michael Purcaro said. "For example, we were able to send emergency calls straight to the emergency operations center, which helps sending crews where we need then to go."

Getting crews on the road was delayed because of winds in excess of 40 mph that limited bucket truck and ambulance deployment, he said. Once they were on the road, they had to contend with power outages and downed trees.

For example, a large tree fell onto some power lines on East Main Street in Vernon, a main link to both Tolland County Courthouses. Police were at the scene, directing folks to a detour. In Vernon Center, the high winds picked up stand-alone awning and it smashed to the ground, mangling all four legs.

There was some major tree damage on Reed Road in Tolland.

A garage was wrecked by a large tree in Glastonbury.

A house was hit in South Window by a downed tree.

Eversource Energy was leaving all restoration estimates open-ended into lunchtime on Monday.

Tolland Public Safety Director John Littell said he was still in the same wet clothes from Sunday on Monday morning because of all the calls. Route 30 between Tolland and Vernon was a mess. Trees fell onto a house and the Hicks-Stearns Museum on the Tolland Green.

Finding coffee was a problem in Tolland County. Most of the Dunkin' Donuts locations seemed to be out of power, except for the shop at the Five Corners Roundabout in Ellington close to the Vernon and South Windsor lines.

Sections of Route 30 in Vernon were expected to be closed into the night, possibly until after 11 p.m., police said.

Photo Credit: Chris Dehnel, Tolland Alert