|
F4 Tornado Slams into Southern Hamden
Monday, July 10, 1989
|
 |
| Dolores Fortuna (center) flanked by daughter Anna-Marie and husband Tom. CLICK photo to go to original 1989 Tornado page. |
|
| Sears Building Proved a Safe Haven in '89
Dolores Fortuna's memory of the event is a vivid as anyone's. It was approaching five in the afternoon and she was about to leave the Hamden Sears store, where she worked in the accounting department. Her father was supposed to pick her up, but he was still at the H.A. Leed Company on Leeder Hill Drive.
It was getting very dark as Dolores waited for her dad by the plate glass doors. She says that she remembers that the doors and windows were rattling something awful, and she wanted to get out of there fast. Just like everyone else in Hamden that afternoon, Dolores could not have imagined that an F4 tornado would be ripping up the south end of town at that very moment - and the H.A. Leed building was among its many casualties.
|
Fortunately, noted Dolores, her father was in that part of the Leed building that withstood the estimated 200 m.p.h. winds, although his car was totaled out in the front parking area. As for Dolores, she probably could not have had any better protection than the Sears building. Five years later, it would take a lot more than high winds to bring that baby down.
Posted 8/18/12
|
 |
| July 1989 - Rear of H.A. Leed Building |
|
|
 |
| October 1994 - It took a lot more than high winds to bring Sears down. |
|
|
|