Side by side Photo Comparison: Hurricane Gloria vs. Tropical Storm Irene
By Brian Dooling on September 27, 2012, 10:19am Last modified: January 7, 2013, 5:42pm
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Thursday September 27, 2012 marks the 27th anniversary of Hurricane Gloria’s landfall in CT. The Category one storm made landfall in Long Island crossing the sound into Western Connecticut. Thirteen months ago Tropical Storm Irene pummeled Connecticut. Surprisingly some of the images that came from both storms were similar even though Irene was weaker then Gloria. Most of this difference occurred on the coast, where a difference in tides made both storms almost equal in destruction. Hurricane Gloria hit at low tide holding back storm surge, while Irene hit at high tide adding to the storm surge.
In this slideshow I have compared photos taken during Hurricane Gloria in 1985 by my father with photos I took during Tropical Storm Irene in Milford, CT. Although Gloria hit before I was born, I grew up looking at these photos imagining the power of Long Island Sound during a hurricane. When Irene moved up the coast I knew I couldn’t miss out on a similar scene. I didn’t take these photos purposely to compare with the Hurricane Gloria pictures. it wasn’t till after the storm last year that I realized how similar the photos were.
This first photo is of Melba Street in Milford, CT. The bottom photo is from Gloria, the top from Irene. Notice the shed to the left is in both pictures (yellow on the bottom and white on top) Also notice the street sign and some of the buildings are similar.
