The Tornado of 1989 #fb

Ah, the tornado of 1989. I can't believe it was already 20 years ago. It was the summer before I started graduate school. I was in our apartment in downtown New Haven on the 14th floor--well, 13th really, but they didn't have a 13th floor. David was in New York. We had a big plate glass window facing west, so beautiful sunsets. And in the middle of the afternoon it suddenly got very dark and things like plastic bags were flying around outside the window--which I think was unprecedented, since we were up so high. I hadn't had the TV on so I had no clue we were in fact getting a tornado. I was just amazed at how dark the sky was. And I was making runs back and forth to the bathroom with towels because that big window was leaking like crazy along the edges--also unprecedented. Hanging around by the window may not have been wise, in retrospect, but it did save having to clean up a big mess later.

I think that the white house shown at the beginning of this video may have been a friend's house, which was flattened in the storm.

Comments

[Susan]

1.

Now that's scary! I'm just Irish enough to be wary of saying this...I've never experienced any excitement like that. Now I've said it, I fully expect a major (long-threatened) earthquake to hit Victoria within the hour.

[Debra Hamel]

2.

Well, it was definitely interesting. I think I would have enjoyed it more at the time if I'd known it was a tornado.