From the Firehouse

Woodbury, Connecticut

That's our Joe Pye Weed behind the house, Tuesday morning before the storm. This Saturday morning we are at the Orenaug Fire Company where there's a community room with charging stations and two showers.

One o'clock Tuesday afternoon and the wind is beginning to whip the plants around.

About two o'clock, after a raging wind storm with not much rain. When it got calm I went out to look for damage. The only direct damage we had was this maple that missed the barn when it came down, but took down the barn's power line. While I was checking, a new twisting wind came suddenly out of nowhere. The trees began making insanely loud cracking noises. I got back to the house and later found that many more trees were snapped off, uprooted, or torn apart by the second and third bouts of wind. Luckily our buildings weren't hit. I've looked around the area Thursday and Friday as part of a view camera field workshop I've been teaching for a private student, and the damage is amazing and extensive. Three foot diameter oak trees are snapped/twisted off ten feet above the ground. The towns have run out of detour signs because nearly every road is blocked by downed trees and power lines. The utility claims they expect 99% restoration by Tuesday—one full week—but that's obviously nonsense. The state highway that runs past our house has multiple partial blockages that haven't been touched, and is completely closed less than a mile from us, where downed trees and wires as of now are exactly as they've been since Tuesday. While out we saw a group of bucket trucks setting up to work—the company logo said they were from Wisconsin.