It Was a Tornado in Bristol, Not in Westport

The National Weather Service determined that a tornado hit Blakeslee Street in Bristol on Wednesday. 

The weather experts spent the day in Connecticut on Thursday to evaluate several storms that ripped through the state on Wednesday.

The storm to hit Westport was not a tornado and they has been no ruling on the unconfirmed report of a tornado in the Northfield section Litchfield on Wednesday .

Sharon, Harwinton and Bristol were the hit hardest towns.

In Bristol, the high winds took down dozens of trees. One slammed onto the hood of Sally Petit's truck. 

"As I turned down the street, I heard this God awful crash. I'm like, 'Oh my goodness, what's going on?" 

She was trapped until a neighbor helped pull her to safety. 

"I'm sitting there, like what do I do now, when all of a sudden this gentleman came up and saved my life," Petit said.

More than a dozen people can relate to Sally's story.  A 100-year-old tree crushed at least eight cars in the Bristol Hospital parking lot. 

"It was pretty ugly.  It looked like they went through a crusher, there was nothing left of them," Dan Letournaru, of LaChance Tree Service, said.

At 3:45 p.m., a trained weather spotter reported a tornado sighting on Main Street in the Northfield section of Litchfield.  It will be up to the National Weather Service to make the final determination. 

Steve Simonin says a tornado ripped a line of trees out of the ground on his property.

"I have a lot of work to do to clean this up. We are just grateful that it didn't hit the house," he said.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell issued a partial activation of the state emergency operations center on Thursday.

Law enforcement officials also believe a tornado touched down in Sharon, but that has not been confirmed.  Crews worked to clear off the main roads for several hours.

Power was out for 45,000 Connecticut Light & Power customers as of 10:30 p.m., Connecticut Light & Power said.  At the height, more than 54,000 customers were without power. Crews have worked well into Thursday to restore electricity to all customers.

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