CTWG: Tornado Damage Assesment Missions

Connecticut --- On Saturday the 27th, Connecticut Civil Air Patrol was requested by the Connecticut Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security (DEMHS) to fly two aircraft sorties to verify a possible tornado strike, perform a damage assessment and provide aerial photography associated with a line of extremely strong thunderstorms that caused damage across a large part of Connecticut during the evening of Friday the 26th.

Sortie 1, was crewed by Connecticut Civil Air Patrol Mission Pilot Major Keith Neilson, and two observers from the National Weather Services (NWS) office in Upton, New York; Ross Dickman, NWS Meteorologist-In-Charge, and Gary Conte, NWS Meteorologist. Sortie 2, performed high resolution, low level, aerial digital imaging for DEMHS and was crewed by Mission Pilot 1st Lt. Lenny Kimball, Observer Capt. Kevin Shea and Mission Scanner 2nd Lt. Joseph Kurcaba. Capt Thomas Litwinczyk served as the Connecticut Wing Mission Radio Communication Operator. The Connecticut Wing’s Mission Incident Commander was Major Jack Shapiro.

After viewing wind damage in Litchfield, Hartford and New London Counties, it was determined an extremely strong storm cell, causing damage from Farmington eastward, touched down as a tornado in Wethersfield. Lasting approximately three minutes and registering on the Fujita scale as an EF1 tornado it packed winds from 80 to 100 MPH. No lives were lost, 1 person was injured. However, there was a large amount of property damage. One home was virtually split in two by a falling tree, a store had its windows blown out and a kayak mysteriously deposited itself in the middle of a major street. On a larger scale, a significant number of downed trees blocked many of Wethersfield’s city streets and caused localized power outages lasting from Friday night into Sunday evening. Due to pre-existing, abnormally wet conditions local flooding occurred in both business and homes due to a lack of electricity to power basement water pumps.

At the conclusion of the missions, Mr. Dickman of the National Weather Service issued the following commendations:

“In particular, please extend my thanks in coordinating the availability of CAP FLIGHT 640 for our office. The pilot was extremely experienced and professional. Procedurally, the timeliness and ability to get up over the state was more efficient than would otherwise have been possible.”

“We would like to express our sincere appreciation to all people involved with this survey process. In particular, the Connecticut Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, The Civil Air Patrol, Farmington and Wethersfield Police Chiefs and the Wethersfield Town Manager.”