Thousands of families were still in the dark 48 hours after a powerful line of storms spawned four tornadoes in Connecticut.
In Brookfield, a macroburst with winds more than 100 miles per hour is to blame for extensive damage to many homes.
“We’re all thankful, the house can be replaced, the whole cliché but it’s true,” Paula Pascoa said.
Paula and her 20-year-old daughter Arianna were home when the macroburst moved onto their street, Skyline Drive.
“I moved in here the end of January,” Paula said.
Her home is one of many in the town to be damaged by falling trees.
“This whole place is going to get ripped out,” Paula said, “so I don’t know what I’m doing really. I’m just getting my work stuff because I’m going to a hotel.”
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Paula rushed inside from doing yard work when she felt the macroburst coming.
“If I would have went down the side, I would have been crushed by the trees,” she said.
Arianna ran inside from walking their two dogs.
“They were really scared, too,” she said.
Seconds later, the two women heard a crack, Paula said.
“I don’t know what happened,” Arianna said, “but I was following my mom to the bedrooms and I got knocked down by the ceiling.”
“All of a sudden she screams cause it hit her back and she has back problems already,” Paula said, “but she’s OK.”
‘I’m really happy that she was here,” Arianna said, adding, “my back hurts a little bit I have like scratches and stuff and I was bleeding, but (I’m) better.”
Down the street, NBC Connecticut came across a crater caused by a large tree that uprooted on Tuesday, but fortunately did not fall onto the home on the property.
Jamie Worth, who is about 6-foot, said she estimates the stump is “20 feet, from the bottom, at least.”
Neither Jamie nor her mom were home during the macroburst.
“I was up in Pittsfield Massachusetts and I was watching it on the NBC,” homeowner Kathy Worth said. “I was devastated, like Jaime said, until I saw my neighbor’s house and then I was grateful because it could have been a lot worse for us here.”
In this hard-hit neighborhood, reality is setting in that it will be a long road to recovery.
“Yeah we’re hanging in,” Paula said. “We’re strong and we’re going to you know get through this.”
Paula and her daughter are staying with a neighbor down the street that just lost a car from a falling tree, but that neighbor’s house was not damaged.
Brookfield schools will again be closed on Friday.
Eversource said Thursday it hopes to complete power restoration in the hardest hit areas by Sunday afternoon. Anyone in a city or town with storm damage is advised to stay away from downed power lines – they could be re-energized.
