Once Upon a Tornado! And Other Trouble too!
Here's my share about the Cornwall CT Tornado of July 10th, 1989...30 years ago. I read a lot of other comments on CT's Northwest Corner Chatter. There are thankfully not too many tornadoes do such carnage as that one, particularly with the devastation of Cathedral Pines. Yet there are some serious storms and conditions to be on the watch for not only from above but as I share also (for those who haven't caught up on the theme of the last many posts, of the passing of our teen son Kaelan ten years ago, in June 2009, in the Housatonic River in CT.)
This turn of events rocked my world as well... even on Sharon Mountain where a power line was down and got turned on 'by mistake' around 9 at night...first a horrible sound emerging louder and louder coming toward the room I was in with a little one...and then seeing the electricity spew out in wild purple snakelike fashion in the road... I thought we'd get fried.
Then I managed to pull myself together and ask a friend if I could spend the night on a mountaintop in Millerton NY...couldn't feel I could get far enough away from that scare...and some folks weren't exactly making it easy to leave.
But did and so I got a good night's sleep after all and was closer to where I was working the next day, with little one in tow.
A week later I went to see about helping a fellow who was 'near his end' and on oxygen but was grateful they didn't need my help after all..
.It looked as rather hopeless...but thankfully Cornwall pulled through and so the stories continue, mostly with happy endings...but some not so much ones too...Some stories are on the 275th Cornwall Story site, including our own challenge 10 years ago when our son passed, on June 16, 2009, having biked to school from Cornwall with friends on River Road the last day of freshman year which turned out to be the last of his life as well.
Strangely his body was recovered after its 7 mile journey from the base of the falls over the Rattlesnake rapids and was secured just below the West Cornwall Covered Bridge...a week after his passing. The water once again played a difficult role in the lives of the friends he was able to help save and of course his own, and the rescuers, especially Skip Kosciusko from W Cornwall, who was able to save one teen with a rope rescue.
That's the kind of quick action that is the silver lining along with Kaelan's love and heroic efforts to secure his friends safety the best he could. The water didn't win... Kaelan's courage and love did...and that hopefully will inspire many others to live, love and drive (especially on the country roads but the highways too) with plenty of care and extra space to allow for the physics, weather and realities to each have their due respect on this bridge we call life.
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