Remembering The Destruction Of Hurricane Gloria’s Eye

I'm watching the horrible news come in from the direct-hit that Jamaica is taking, and it reminded me of what happened here in Connecticut just over 40 years ago.

Have you ever seen the eye of a hurricane? The first and only time that I've ever seen one happened just over 40 years ago. On September 27, 1985, Hurricane Gloria directly passed over Long Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and eventually died out over New Hampshire, Maine, and Canada. Gloria packed 80-90MPH winds as it entered Connecticut between Westport and Bridgeport, and continued Northeasterly along the Rt. 8/91 corridors.

In 1985 I was a 16-year-old kid living in Waterbury, and I remember we hunkered down in the bottom floor of our raised-ranch in the Town Plot section of town. We had power up maybe two hours before Gloria hit, but when it went out it was terrifying. That was the strongest wind I've ever felt in my life. Most of the leaves were still on the trees, and they started coming down when the wind gusts got above 50. I remember hearing the first sustained gusts of 6-70-80 MPH winds just build and build until there weren't any breaks of silence, and then, it was silent and sunny out.

We carefully opened up our back door and saw an incredible blue sky overhead, this was the eye of Gloria, and it gave us maybe 10-15 minutes to look around at all of the damage that had been done. Dozens of trees had toppled over in our neighborhood, everyone had something of their neighbor's blow into their yard, people were calling out to each other to check on them. Then, it started again, and the wind was coming from the opposite direction. We endured maybe another 15-20 minutes of damaging wind, and then it was over. That was the only time that I've ever seen the eye of a hurricane.