Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • 4

A4 THE HARTFORD COURANT: Tuesday, July 11, 1989 1 Storms rip through through western Connecticut i mm, ,7 mmmm-m nlT Wa, tM-. Continued from Page 1 Guard members also were used to investigate reports of looting. Hamden was also aided by officers from the state police and the New Haven Police Department. Some areas of the town were evacuated, and the Margaret L. Keefe Senior Center was opened as an emergency shelter, but it quickly filled up, forcing the city to open the Hamden High School as well.

Block after block in Hamden was without power and many residents filled the streets, staring at the damage, sweeping away debris and using axes to remove downed trees. The storm tore the roof off an apartment building in the Fair Haven section of New Haven and forced the roof of an adjacent building to shift about 15 feet. "I was in the kitchen and all of a sudden the pipe in the kitchen was pulled right out of the wall. And then the center of the apartment just caved in," said Ronald Harris, a resident of the building. "I looked up and all I saw was the sky and I flew downstairs.

I grabbed my hamsters and I just ran." The height of the storm lasted little more than 15 minutes in the New Haven area, but the storm was so intense that patrol officers were advised to park their cars in a safe location until the rain, wind and hail passed. Covers were lifted off many manholes downtown and the winds toppled the 6-by-6-foot marquis at the Shubert Theater. "It felt like a tornado came through said Mike Snur-kowski of New Haven as he looked at a 75-foot-tall tree that fell on two cars and his rose garden. "It was so dark, it was like Kansas. It looked like it was 9 o'clock at night." In the Bantam section of Litchfield, severe winds under blackened skies destroyed borough hall and Bantam Methodist Church and overturned boats on Bantam Lake.

The storm, which swept through the area about 5 p.m., toppled 50-foot trees and blew the top off the borough post office and damaged about 70 houses. There were no fatalities reported and only minor injuries. The church and town hall were reduced to rubble. All that remained of borough hall was the brick vault containing town records. Route 202, a main road through the area, was blocked by fallen trees and wires.

"I saw it coming down. The sky was blacker than the ace of spades and there was violent lightning," said Capt. Don Stull of the Bantam Fire Department. Resident Terry Piorone was at home with her son on Route 202 near the borough hall when the storm struck, blowing the windows out of the two-story house. "There was glass flying.

He and I just crouched in the kitchen and held on to each other," said Piorone as she leaned against the hood of a car, surveying the damage. "I never saw wind go by so fast," said Nathan Zimmerman, owner of Northwest Corner Properties, a real estate agency. "It was getting louder and louder and louder and somebody's roof came through my window." He ran outside and "it looked like somebody blew off a bomb." By 8 p.m., an orange sun shined over the scene. In Canaan, heavy winds and rain felled trees and downed power lines forcing the closing of routes 4, 7 and 128. However, police dispatchers reported no serious injuries.

Trooper Kathleen Lauretano of the state police Troop barracks in Canaan said several towns in the very northwest corner of the state were hard hit Salisbury, Sharon, North Canaan, Canaan, Cornwall Solando Otero The Hartford Courant en. An emergency medical Hamden Monday after high storm winds hit the area, Guard and state troopers from three barracks were called center was set up to handle the injured. I 7 Sariout damaga iaa warthwaat coraar of atatai Salisbury, Canaan, Sharon, 1 lMMM -7 SALISBURY CONNECTICUT NEW YORK TORRINQTON Church damollaJiad and HARTFOrT LITCHFIELD many houtm down In Bantam I BANTAM Haarl attack doath in Waterbury. Camporklllad by- railing xr hi Thomatton WATERBURY CARMEL State of amarcancy in Hamdan, dozan of houses damaged Buildings down, half of city phones 4 inchM of rain In OXFORD 30 minute in Oxford HAMDEN Tornado das troys 35-unrt condo in out ot service in Carmai, N.Y. A AJ 1 New Haven Nw Hivmi Rolando Otero The Hartford Courant Fallen trees cover a car off Dixwell Avenue in houses and knocked down power lines.

A state of Hamden after high winds hit the area, leveling emergency was declared in the town. and Goshen. largely because of problems with wall, said the Mohawk Mountain ski In that area, "virtually all the telephones. area in Cornwall was badly dam-roads were impassable for a few Lauretano said that in Litchfield aged. Mills, who was working with hours," and almost all electric pow- County towns farther east Nor- local firefighters to clear the roads, er and telephones were knocked out, folk, Colebrook, Barkhamsted and said lifts were damaged and thou-Lauretano said at 8:40 p.m.

Both New Hartford damage was less sands of trees downed in a swath left vehicles and houses were hit by fall- severe, although there was a land- by an apparent tornado, en trees, she said, but information slide on Route 202. "It's really mind-boggling," Mills about damage was still incomplete One witness, Dave Mills of Corn- said. The Hartford Courant Family found slain in Hartford; man may have shot three, himself Continued from Page 1 Woodside Circle is a street that loops off Asylum Avenue, opposite the Hartford College for Women. It is lined with large, stately brick houses partially hidden from view by bushes and trees. "Even though we live across the street, it's kind of far away," said Jane Longley-Cook, who lives opposite the Cotters' house.

She said she hadn't seen any member of the family in about a month. Throughout the afternoon and early evening, neighbors huddled across the street from the Cotter home, watching police and trying to make sense of the incident. When a heavy rain began late in the 'afternoon, some ran into their houses to grab umbrellas and slickers, but then returned to the street to ask reporters and police officers if they knew what had happened. "This little alcove is quiet," Longley-Cook said. It shakes you up to have something like this happen.

The little kids are really concerned. They're imagining all sorts of horrible things." "This is not real," said Julie Ner-man, another neighbor. The Hartford Courant had gone to Noah Webster School with her children and been part of their car pool. She said he would have been a senior at Westminster School in Simsbury. "He was not a punk," she said.

"He was what you'd want your kids to grow up to be nice, polite." Neighbors said Julia Cotter had just graduated from Mount Holyoke College this spring and said she would be spending the summer in England. "It's probably three weeks since I saw Julia and I can't remember Please see Police, next page When an officer walked one of the Cotters' large black poodles out of the house, Nerman stepped forward. "Truffles, come here," she called to the dog. She turned to the officer. "What are you going to do with her?" "She's being impounded, ma'am," the officer replied.

"Don't leave her there," Nerman said. "We'll take care of her." The second dog, which neighbors said was named Caviar, was found dead in the house. Loranger said the dog was not shot, but declined to comment further on what may have led to the dog's death. Longley-Cook said the Cotters' son Hi: -Vv. 'V xt 'A Paula Bronstein The Hartford Courant 1 and wait Monday outside the center is Robin Cloud, and at right, Fran Calafiore.

people were shot to death. At The woman at the left is not identified. Neighbors watch home where four 9.