Milford Residents Describe Storm Damage As 'Nightmare'

MILFORD (CBS) - Several Milford residents were cleaning up Friday after a quick-moving storm heavily damaged their neighborhood overnight.

Large trees and branches toppled onto cars, sheds and fences. A large tree came crashing down onto an SUV on Courtland Street.

"I went into my son's bedroom and the next thing I see is this big tree coming down," said Maria Fraga. "It landed on top of our SUV and the whole back yard is a mess."

"It's just like a nightmare," Fraga said.

But residents on Courtland Street and Diana Circle don't think the strong wind is the only reason so many trees came down. They're wondering if the clearing of the land behind their homes might be part of the problem.

"Just wondering why, why none of my neighbors who don't have any construction going on behind them don't have any trees down and we do," said Jessica Corbett.

In recent weeks, several acres of trees have been cleared from behind their homes for new development.

"We've been here 30 years. We never have such devastation in our backyard so when they cleared the land in the back, they must have messed up the integrity of the land or the trees, so don't know what happened. We got caught by surprise," said Dani Saad.

The downed trees are adding more frustration to an already uncertain situation.

"We don't even know what we're going to be looking at out there. We don't know if it's residential or commercial. No one's told us anything," said Corbett. "It's really sad. We were just thankful for the trees we did have and now we don't have any."

Residents say they're glad the damage wasn't worse, but they would like some answers.

"I'm happy that no one got hurt and that it didn't go on top of my house, but who is going to be responsible to clean all of this," said Fraga.

One family said their insurance company planned to assess the damage on Friday and determine whether the new development had anything to do with it.