Much of Branford was still reeling Friday night after Thursday’s storm but perhaps there was no street hit harder than Meadow Wood Road. Trees are still draped over wires and the debris field only gets worse the further down the road you travel.
“All the trees. Everybody’s lost them,” said Joe Lombardo, who had a storage shed crushed by fallen trees.
Home after home on Meadow Wood Road received damage. Trees, dozens of them, snapped in half like toothpicks.
“It came right through here,” said Rich Hughes, pointing to a path of fallen trees. “Right across the back of the house. I’d say we’re down 40 trees.”
Debris was strewn across property and roads, making it incredibly difficult for people here to even get home.
“Every road was closed and I couldn’t get back. It took me about four hours,” said Lombardo.
A young mother was forced to run for safety after her car was trapped. With a fallen tree in front and another behind, she was forced to grab her children aged 3 and 1 and run through a wooded area to a nearby home for safety.
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At that home, Antoinette Denton took them in.
“Somebody was banging at the door and I see a lady and two kids. A toddler and a baby,” explained Denton.
Denton, was already in protection mode. She is the caregiver of a 95-year-old woman named Peggy. As wind howled and trees snapped, Denton says she moved Peggy away from windows.
“I put her in the library so that nothing fall on her. If anything fall, we were safe,” said Denton.
Outside the home there was unthinkable destruction. But one tree seemingly offered mercy. A 40 foot tree, bent in almost a perfect arch directly over the home without breaking.
That tree did not fall but many others did. Denton and Peggy’s family now worry how an ambulance might reach the home if there is an emergency.
While there were many cleanup crews are working around the Branford area clearing debris much of the street, it was still impassable as of 9 p.m. Friday.
