A Fortean Tornado

This tornado event in Connecticut -- or rather, "suspected" tornado -- has lots of Fortean elements; really, the event itself struck me as Fortean. Starting with the use of the word "suspected" in describing such tornado:

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. – A suspected tornado tore through Connecticut's largest city Thursday, toppling trees and power lines and collapsing several buildings as a powerful line of storms swept across parts of the Northeast. Remarkably, no serious injuries were reported.

Besides the use of the word "suspected" was the use of "unconfirmed"

There were unconfirmed sightings of a tornado..

You'd think the article was reporting on a UFO or Bigfoot sighting.


I wonder what part of the weather event caused such suspicion; it certainly behaved like a tornado:

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. Nine buildings were partially or fully collapsed, including three on East Main Street that were brought to their foundations . . .
Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch declared a state of emergency after the fast-moving system of driving rain and wind gusts that reached 78 miles per hour in the area.

 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."

And so on. Among the damaged buildings: "a museum dedicated to P.T. Barnum"

Despite the damage, witness reports, the "unconfirmed tornado sightings," the weather service has to go and check it out for themselves before confirming or denying.



Read complete article here.