Suspected tornado shatters Conn. city

Associated Press

BRIDGEPORT, Conn.

A suspected tornado tore through Connecticut’s largest city Thursday, toppling trees and power lines and collapsing a building as a powerful line of storms swept across parts of the Northeast. No serious injuries were reported.

Hundreds of bricks shook loose from buildings, trees split in half and crushed cars, and a billboard hung precariously several stories up over Main Street. Rescuers searched what was left of a collapsed building before determining no one was inside.

The office of Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch declared a state of emergency after the fast-moving system of wind and rain.

Jacqueline Arroyo, 44, said she saw a black cloud and ran inside to her third-floor apartment, where the window exploded. Trees were blown so ferociously they appeared to be coming out of the ground, and people were screaming, she said.

“All the wind started coming inside the house. I heard ‘boom, boom!’” she said. “It was so fast but terrifying.”

A jail was without power, Finch said. The mayor urged residents to stay indoors and remain calm, and Gov. M. Jodi Rell was surveying damage to the city.

There were no reports of anyone trapped in buildings, said Assistant Police Chief Lynn Kerwin.

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