Pictures From Storm

This is the shopping center I work at.. My salon is on the other side of shopping center.

At about 5:40 PM on Saturday I was working when that part of the roof fell- one of our stylists was inside at the time shopping with her daughter, but they were safely evacuated.



This is around the corner from work..



This is a home on Post Road just before Hillside Avenue (the road Greenwich High School is on)..


...And this is Hillside Road itself. No school today!

North Street, flooded..


Governer Jodi Rell declaring state of emergency, with our First Selectman Peter Tesei to her right.

Woman Killed by Falling Trees ID'd; Remembered by Church

[ARTICLE 2]

Greenwich Time- A Greenwich woman who was killed Saturday after being struck by falling trees was remembered Monday as a "wonderful person" who was active in her church and loved music.

Police identified the woman Monday as 61-year-old June Einhorn, of 19 Boulder Brook Road.

Einhorn was killed Saturday evening during the height of a fierce storm that ripped through Greenwich and caused major destruction in the backcountry, where Einhorn lived.

Police said Einhorn was out walking with her husband, Eric Einhorn, in their northeast Greenwich neighborhood when several trees struck her, causing a severe head injury.

It is believed the Einhorns were walking to a neighbor's house for dinner at the time of the incident. Officials believe she was killed instantly.

On Monday, news of Einhorn's passing shook the members of Christ Church Greenwich, where she had been an involved member for several years.

"She was always very active in a lot of our programs and our music department," said Susan Marks, communications director for the church.

"She was an amazing lady. Very talented. She could do everything, and this is such a loss, not just to Christ Church but to the whole community."

Marks, who described Einhorn as a good friend, said Einhorn was South African and had two children who both recently graduated from college. Her children were in the church choir, Marks said.

"They actually had just moved back to Greenwich," said Marks, noting that the Einhorns had moved out of town for a period. "She was just a wonderful person."

As of Monday afternoon, Marks believed there would be a memorial service at the church, but plans had not been discussed, she said. Einhorn's family could not be reached for comment at their home Monday.

According to online records, the Einhorns were one of numerous donors to a program called the Sekolo Project Inc., which works to help prevent HIV infection in Namibia. Marks said she was familiar with the project and the couple's involvement.

On Sunday, one of the Einhorns' neighbors described how the ordeal unfolded. Neighbor Gary Silberberg said he was outside checking on damage when he was approached by the woman's husband, asking him to help search for his wife.

After grabbing a flashlight from his home, Silberberg returned to find the woman had been lying on the road close to a tree.

"She was lying face down and we turned her over and I couldn't get a pulse and she had a gray pallor on her face," Silberberg said Sunday.

With the assistance of a neighbor, they used a tarpaulin to carry her to a nearby home where a doctor lived. However, Silberberg said there was nothing the doctor could do.

It took medics and police nearly two hours to get to the scene and even longer to get the woman to a hospital due to the damage in the area from falling trees and power lines. Police said the Einhorns arrived at Greenwich Hospital at approximately 11 p.m. Saturday. June Einhorn was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Ingrid McMenamin, president of the Northwest Greenwich Association, said the tragedy demonstrates how residents need to be wary of falling trees and stay indoors if they can.

"Our heart reaches out to the family," said McMenamin. "It is just tragic. It reinforces the need to stay in shelter when the weather is like this."

Falling Tree Kills Backcountry Woman on Way to Dinner

[ARTICLE 1]

This article reflects my uncle (Sgt. Mike O'Connor)'s account of nearly losing his life as well.


Greenwich Time- A 61-year-old woman was killed after a tree struck her on the head as she and her husband walked in their northeast Greenwich neighborhood during the storm Saturday night.

Police did not release the woman's name pending notification of additional family members. Her husband, who was slightly injured, was treated and released from Greenwich Hospital, and could not be reached by telephone Sunday.

The woman and her husband lived on Boulder Brook Road, and were believed to be walking to a neighbor's home for dinner, police said.

Neighbor Gary Silberberg said he was outside checking on damage when he was approached by the woman's husband, asking him to help search for his wife.

"He was upset, he was agitated," Silberberg said. Darkness and extensive tree damage made the search difficult, Silberberg said.

"It was just awful there were so many trees down," he said.

Silberberg returned to his home to find a flashlight. When he returned a few minutes later the woman had been found lying on the road close to a tree.

"She was lying face down and we turned her over and I couldn't get a pulse and she had a gray pallor on her face," said Silberberg, 65, who had been a medic in the Army about 40 years ago.

A neighbor found a tarpaulin and Silberberg and other neighbors carried her to a nearby home where a doctor lived.

The doctor looked at her but there was nothing he could do, Silberberg said.

Police believed one white pine tree knocked two others down, and that one of the those trees fell on the woman's head.

"We think she died instantly," said Chief David Ridberg.

It took almost two hours for police and paramedics to arrive because of the storm damage that blocked roads leading to the scene, said Sgt. Michael O'Connor.

At one point he feared for his life on Stanwich Road.

"We were outside trying to move a tree when we heard a loud crack -- the gust of wind must have been 70 miles per hour easily -- and we jumped back into the truck," he said. "The tree just stopped above the hood, it was the (telephone) wires that stopped it. If I had moved that truck about four feet (before the tree came down) I think it would have crushed the truck."

The tree's trunk, which O'Connor estimated to be about three feet in diameter, stopped just inches above the hood of the police department pickup he was in with two other officers and two paramedics.

"It was right in the windshield, right in our faces," he said. "There were some expletives said and I said let's get out of here."

They parked the vehicle in a driveway and waited for a tree crew to cut the tree to let them through. But another tree was in their way preventing them from responding to Boulder Brook Road.

They got out and walked but in the meantime two detectives had reached the scene, said O'Connor. Instead they responded to other calls including one where a family had been trapped in a car for hours because trees had come down on either side of the car.

"It was like something out of a movie," O'Connor said about the damage wrought by the storm and the danger they were in. "I was scared. I have been a police officer for almost 26 years and I was a volunteer firefighter before that. This was the worst I have ever seen it. I do consider myself lucky."

It wasn't until about 11 p.m. that the woman and her husband were brought to the hospital, police said.

The woman's body will be taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner Monday. Police did not know if an autopsy will be performed Monday.

A Third of the U.S. Faces Above-Average Flood Risk

MSNBC-More than a third of the contiguous United States faces a high or above average flood risk this spring, the National Weather Service reported Tuesday.

"We are looking at potentially historic flooding in some parts of the country this spring," Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said at a news briefing while presenting the government's spring outlook. NOAA oversees the weather service.

The highest threat is in the Dakotas, Minnesota and Iowa. Those areas have already seen some flooding and rivers are rising quickly, especially the Red River between North Dakota and Minnesota.

"Crests could approach the record levels set just last year" along the Red, the service stated. In 2009, about 100 homes in the area were damaged and thousands of people were evacuated after the Red River rose above the flood stage for a record 61 days and crested twice.

"It’s a terrible case of deja vu, but this time the flooding will likely be more widespread" across the Midwest, Lubchenco said.

"As the spring thaw melts the snowpack, saturated and frozen ground in the Midwest will exacerbate the flooding of the flat terrain and feed rising rivers and streams," she added.

The Storm of the Century..

Yes, our area had the biggest storm that I will always remember. One woman in our town died, as I will post an article on, and my house only received electricity today after being without since Saturday.

It's sad to have lost a life in our community from the storm- and my uncle, a responding officer to the incident, almost lost his life due to a tree that had crushed where he and his fellow officer sat in the vehicle just moments before.

I will never forget this storm, or the other news I received yesterday- my maternal grandfather has lung cancer.

[check out these pictures]

..Good news is that it's at an operable stage and there is great hope.