By JON MARCUS New England Center for Investigative Reporting Massachusetts state officials expect to fall billions of dollars short of the savings promised to taxpayers under a landmark merger of transportation agencies, an investigation by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting has found. Eighteen months after the Turnpike Authority and other agencies were rolled into the state’s new...

The Massachusetts Turnpike interchange in West Springfield. State officials expect to fall billions of dollars short of the savings promised to taxpayers under a landmark merger of transportation agencies.

By JON MARCUS
New England Center for Investigative Reporting

Massachusetts state officials expect to fall billions of dollars short of the savings promised to taxpayers under a landmark merger of transportation agencies, an investigation by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting has found.

Eighteen months after the Turnpike Authority and other agencies were rolled into the state’s new Department of Transportation to cut costs and duplication, the Patrick administration now predicts the merger will save about $2 billion over the next two decades – far less than the up to $6.5 billion in savings promised by legislative leaders.

An examination of agency personnel records obtained by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting also shows that 457 new employees – many of them temporary – have been added since the merger. When retirements, resignations, and layoffs are taken into account, the combined Transportation Department has trimmed a net total of 31 positions out of a payroll of 4,254.

“It’s not so much that the reorganization was a bad idea. It’s that it was oversold,” said David Tuerck, executive director of the Beacon Hill Institute, an economic-research center at Suffolk University.

Patrick administration officials told legislators at the time of the merger that it would result in a decrease of 300 positions.

“I thought at the time the merger was announced that the administration was being overoptimistic about the number of jobs it would eliminate and the cost savings it would achieve,” Tuerck said.

But Transportation Secretary Jeffrey Mullan said 313 of the employees who have been added since the merger are assigned to work on an eight-year program to repair bridges, which ends in 2016, and 72 were hired using federal stimulus money. He said those shouldn’t be counted as permanent additions.

These workers, Mullan said, have signed agreements acknowledging that their positions will be cut when the stimulus money runs out and the bridge program ends. “If I have a vacancy, and I have a high performer, I’m going to see if I can hire that person. But unless there’s a job for them, they’re going away,” Mullan said.

If the employees hired for the bridge projects and under the stimulus program are set aside, Mullan estimated he’s cut the payroll by about 10 percent, even more than the administration projected.

“We’ve exceeded our objective,” he said.

When he estimated a reduction of 300 employees, Mullan said, “I did not anticipate that three things would happen, one being the advent of the accelerated bridge program, which would drive payroll up. Nor did we anticipate that the Congress would pass the stimulus program, and that drove head count.”

“I also didn’t anticipate we would be so successful in doubling our highway investment in such a short period of time,” he said. “We’ve doubled the amount of investments in our roads and bridges because they’re in embarrassingly bad shape. And when you double the program, you need the people to do that. So the trick really is, we’ve taken down head count since the merger, but you still need managers to manage the organization.”

Transportation Department officials also contend that they’ve removed 149 state troopers from the books who patrol the turnpike, transferring them to the State Police. But this is only an accounting change, since the DOT still pays all of the troopers’ salaries and benefits.

More recently, 17 managers in the department were given raises averaging 9 percent so far this year, and as high as 18 percent, during a time when Governor Deval Patrick was calling on public employees to forgo salary increases.

Mullan said the raises went to executives who were promoted, and who are doing work previously shared among several top administrators. “As much as people think it’s 17 people getting raises, I think it’s more about a comprehensive management review that results in fewer managers at the DOT, which actually saves money.”

He said, “The real goal is to take down overhead. So instead of having three general counsels in three different agencies, for example, we now have one.”

The records obtained by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting show that Mullan himself took a 6 percent pay cut, from $160,000 at the time of the merger to $150,000 this year.

Andrew Bagley, director of research and public affairs for the Massachusetts Taxpayers’ Foundation, said the department nonetheless seems to be on track.

“The 31 number is not the right number to focus on,” said Bagley, who was shown the payroll figures. “You’re including 385 people who were hired on the capital side based on the fact that the Legislature passed this $2.9 billion bridge program and because the feds gave them money. I’d take that as a unique situation. We would never have said, ‘We don’t want the capital money in there because we’re looking at head count.’”

The once-autonomous Turnpike Authority was combined with the state Highway Department, MBTA, Registry of Motor Vehicles, Massachusetts Aeronautics Commission, and all or part of several other agencies on Nov. 1, 2009.

State legislators who supported the merger, including state Sen. Steven Baddour, D-Methuen, chairman of the Joint Committee on Transportation, repeatedly declined requests to comment. The governor’s office also did not respond to email and voicemail messages asking for a response to the personnel numbers.

But one legislator furnished, on condition of anonymity, a PowerPoint presentation made during Beacon Hill committee hearings at which administration officials said that combining the Turnpike Authority with Mass. Highway and all or parts of other transportation agencies would eliminate hundreds of positions.

The reorganization, the presentation promised, “streamlines transportation planning and programming and creates a more efficient and cost-effective system by consolidating multiple existing layers of bureaucracy” and “consolidates legal, human resources, IT, and procurement departments into shared services.”

There have been some savings from the merger, mainly due to lower debt-service costs and from switching MBTA employees to the state employee insurance plan under which they have to pay a portion of their health-care costs. These have helped result in a 2.5 percent reduction in the department’s $698.4 million operating budget this year, DOT officials said, when compared to last year’s. That’s a reduction of about $17 million.

At the time of the merger, Baddour projected savings of $6 billion over 20 years, and Senate President Therese Murray, D-Plymouth, and House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo, D-Winthrop, put the figure at $6.5 billion.

“There’s no way in the world we were ever going to see a $6 billion savings,” Bagley said. “That was way too excessive a figure to put out there.”

Mullan said the state, over 20 years, would probably save closer to $2 billion. But he added: “That’s a very large savings.”


The New England Center for Investigative Reporting (NECIR) is a nonprofit investigative reporting newsroom based at Boston University.

A man was shot near 46 Orchard St. in the Brightwood section of the city early Sunday morning, according to Springfield police, who continue to investigate.

Republican file photo

SPRINGFIELD -- A man was shot near 46 Orchard St. in the Brightwood section of the city early Sunday morning, according to Springfield police, who continue to investigate.

The man, whom authorities declined to identify, was shot in the buttocks and is expected to survive, said Springfield Police Lt. Maurice T. Kearney.

Police were summoned to Baystate Medical Center after the gunshot victim showed up for treatment early Sunday morning.

"We just responded to the hospital," Kearney said, adding that he was unsure of the precise time of the shooting report.

Police did not immediately release a motive for the crime, and no suspects were in custody as of 2 a.m. Sunday.

More information will be posted as it becomes available.

The consolidated DOT is expected to save about $2 billion over 20 years, less than one-third the amount originally estimated.

The Republican | Mark M. Murray06.15.2011 | The Massachusetts Turnpike interchange in West Springfield.

Jon Marcus | New England Center for Investigative Reporting

Massachusetts state officials expect to fall billions of dollars short of the savings promised to taxpayers under a landmark merger of transportation agencies, an investigation by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting has found.

Eighteen months after the Turnpike Authority and other agencies were rolled into the state’s new Department of Transportation to cut costs and duplication, the Patrick administration now predicts the merger will save about $2 billion over the next two decades – far less than the up to $6.5 billion in savings promised by legislative leaders.

An examination of agency personnel records obtained by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting also shows that 457 new employees – many of them temporary – have been added since the merger. When retirements, resignations, and layoffs are taken into account, the combined Transportation Department has trimmed a net total of 31 positions out of a payroll of 4,254.

“It’s not so much that the reorganization was a bad idea. It’s that it was oversold” said David Tuerck, executive director of the Beacon Hill Institute, an economic-research center at Suffolk University.

Patrick administration officials told legislators at the time of the merger that it would result in a decrease of 300 positions.

“I thought at the time the merger was announced that the administration was being overoptimistic about the number of jobs it would eliminate and the cost savings it would achieve,” Tuerck said.

But Transportation Secretary Jeffrey Mullan said 313 of the employees who have been added since the merger are assigned to work on an eight-year program to repair bridges, which ends in 2016, and 72 were hired using federal stimulus money. He said those shouldn’t be counted as permanent additions.

These workers, Mullan said, have signed agreements acknowledging that their positions will be cut when the stimulus money runs out and the bridge program ends. “If I have a vacancy, and I have a high performer, I’m going to see if I can hire that person. But unless there’s a job for them, they’re going away,” Mullan said.

If the employees hired for the bridge projects and under the stimulus program are set aside, Mullan estimated he’s cut the payroll by about 10 percent, even more than the administration projected.

“We’ve exceeded our objective,” he said.

When he estimated a reduction of 300 employees, Mullan said, “I did not anticipate that three things would happen, one being the advent of the accelerated bridge program, which would drive payroll up. Nor did we anticipate that the Congress would pass the stimulus program, and that drove head count.”

“I also didn’t anticipate we would be so successful in doubling our highway investment in such a short period of time,” he said. “We’ve doubled the amount of investments in our roads and bridges because they’re in embarrassingly bad shape. And when you double the program, you need the people to do that. So the trick really is, we’ve taken down head count since the merger, but you still need managers to manage the organization.”

Transportation Department officials also contend that they’ve removed 149 state troopers from the books who patrol the turnpike, transferring them to the State Police. But this is only an accounting change, since the DOT still pays all of the troopers’ salaries and benefits.

More recently, 17 managers in the department were given raises averaging 9 percent so far this year, and as high as 18 percent, during a time when Governor Deval Patrick was calling on public employees to forgo salary increases.

The Republican | Mark M. Murray06.26.2009 | Governor Deval L. Patrick, sitting left, hands out ink pens that he used to sign a new transporation bill in Springfield in June 2009.

The New England Center for Investigative Reporting (NECIR) is a nonprofit investigative reporting newsroom based at Boston University.

It took just minutes for the June 1 tornadoes to rip through this small town, killing one woman, injuring a few other people, damaging more than 140 homes and destroying about 40, and knocking down about 1,200 acres of trees in Brimfield State Forest.

Staff map by BOB RICHThe path of the EF1 and EF3 tornadoes through Brimfield.

BRIMFIELD -- It took just minutes for the June 1 tornadoes to rip through this small town, killing one woman, injuring a few other people, damaging more than 140 homes and destroying about 40, and knocking down about 1,200 acres of trees in Brimfield State Forest.

Recovery efforts began immediately and are ongoing.

Rebuilding will take longer, but there is a determination to do it and do it well.

“We are doing everything we can to get things to a new normal,” said selectman Diane M. Panaccione.

“We are doing what needs to be done,” said the Rev. Ian Lynch, pastor of the First Congregational Church.

The church, which is home to the town’s senior center, has been feeding people, sending out water, ice and other necessities and playing an important and old-fashioned role in communications by being a gathering place and sending out information in the first few days when telephone, television and Internet services were knocked out.

After passing eastwardly and destructively through Westfield, West Springfield, Agawam, Springfield, Wilbraham and Monson, the stronger of the two tornadoes to hit Brimfield June 1 swept into town through through the state forest at about 5 p.m., destroying three of seven buildings at a state Department of Conservation and Recreation headquarters.

The storm caused what town officials estimate to be more than $14 million worth of damage to homes on the streets south of Route 20, including Sutcliffe, Dean Pond, Dearth Hill, Hollow, Haynes Hill, Wales, Paige Hill, Holland, and East Brimfield-Holland roads.

It destroyed all but eight of the roughly 90 trailers at Quinebaug Cove Campsite on East Brimfield-Holland Road.

None of the roughly 25 people at Quinebaug were hurt.

At the Village Green Family Campground just to the west, camper Virginia Darlow, 52, of Palmer, was killed in her trailer when the twister flipped it in the air and dumped it upside down.

Staff Photo by John SuchockiA path of destruction was carved through the heart of Brimfield State Forest, pictured here the day after the June 1 tornado that ripped through the rural eastern Hampden County town.

Her boyfriend, Richard Reim, 51, suffered back and neck injuries in the incident.Village Green owner Lester Twarowski said 95 of 97 trailers at his park were destroyed.
Most were empty at the time, and Twarowki was thankful that the storm did not hit during the crowded Memorial Day weekend.

The first tornado, rated EF3 by the National Weather Service, was on the ground moving eastward across the entire width of Brimfield and then went on to Sturbridge, Southbridge and Charlton before lifting off.

A smaller tornado, rated EF1, touched down in the northern part of Brimfield about a mile west of Route 19 a little before 7 p.m. and was on the ground for 1.3 miles before lifting off about one-third of a mile east of Route 19, a little south of Warren.

All of Brimifield’s roads south of Route 20 were blocked by fallen trees from the first storm, and Fire Chief Stephen Denning said it took him hours of cirling to get to the Fire Station on Wales Road, just south of the center of town.

Because all neighboring community fire departments were already responding to the needs just west of town, Denning said he had to call for help from the eastern part of the state.

“We had people from Boston and Cape Cod in Brimfield for search and rescue,” Denning said.

State highway trucks also arrived and started clearing roads for emergency work, pushing tree trunks with snowplows.

Fire Lts. Don Contois and Jim Donovan were among the search and rescue workers who hiked into the devastated areas of town, helping people get from their destroyed homes to shelter.

“It took 45 minutes to go a quarter of a mile, trying to avoid live wires,” Donovan said. “It wasn’t like a tree was down. Every tree was down.”

Photo courtesy of Julie BadulescuThe sun shines through what's left of JoAnn Kass' garage.

Firefighter Peter Fabrycki worked his way around Village Green Family Campground, shouting at trailers to see if anyone would call back. With other responders he helped move the injured to ambulances and treatment.

Twarowski said he and others at the campground had to lift one patient out with a human chain, and a door blown off a trailer was used to carry another.

Much of Hollow Brook Farm on Hollow Road was wiped out and on Holland Road, the entire business of One Stop Towing was destroyed, including dozens of antique cars kept there.

Recovery efforts started within hours, crews started clearing roads, replaced many power lines and started restoring electric and telephone service, and people started going to First Congregational Church for help and to help.

“We began feeding work crews, both professional and volunteers, and delivering meals to homeowners,” Lynch said.

A refrigerator truck was loaned for the effort and parked on the church front lawn and people a constant movement of working volunteers went to work day after day addressing community needs.

Hitchcock Academy took in donations of clothing and began distributing garments to people whose homes went down with their belongings, and donations started pouring in to the town’s usually dormant Harding Fund, established long ago to help Brimfield residents in emergencies.

Gov. Deval L. Patrick, U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, and other officials toured the damage, met with newly homeless residents and started the process aimed at bringing federal money to help in the recovery.

Staff photo by DON TREEGERTornado aftermath in Brimfield: This photo shows town resident Vincent Travi trying to salvage items the day after a June 1 tornado destroyed his home on Hollow Road. His wife Cindy was home when the storm hit , but she managed to survive in the basement by holding onto part of the concrete foundation.

A townwide discussion of the disaster and what steps to take next was held June 11 on the Town Common to provide updates and advice, and the town began to put out information on its website, www.brimfieldma.org and on the local public access television channel and its website, www.brimfield.tv.

A company was hired the week of June 6 to begin removing fallen trees from the road sides, and a schedule of temporary road closings in connection with this work has been published on these websites along with other information.

“We have faith in each other. We have faith in the community. It is powerfully good,” Lynch said.

The church’s meals programs will taper off as the need decreases but the volunteers are ready and committed to meet new needs as they arise, he said.

“It will shift to a rebuilding phase in the next few weeks,” Lynch said, adding with enthusiasm, “I talked with someone today who has a new roof already.”

There was very little damage at the fields along Route 20 where the Brimfield Antiques Shows are held three times a year and the July 12-17 and Sept. 6-11 shows are scheduled to go on.

In Sturbridge, Southbridge and Charlton to the east there were many trees blown down across roads in the storm and there was substantial damage to homes in Sturbridge and Southbridge.

Neal, whose home city of Springfield was heavily damaged in the storm, said these three Worcester County towns and have been included in damage assessments passed on to federal authorities along with the information from Hampden County communities.

Neal and said he saw 15 of 17 airplanes at Southbridge Municipal Airport flipped upside down and ruined and two hangars destroyed. There was also substantial damage at the 74-room Days Inn in Sturbridge, where some buildings were destroyed.

The formula for destruction: Warm, moist air plus cold, dry air plus wind equals tornadoes.

Staff Photo by CONOR BERRYThe view along Upper Hampden Road in Monson the day after a June 1 tornado ravaged sections of forest in this hilly, heavily wooded Springfield exurb.

They were the kind of ominous weather conditions that meteorologists usually detect in the Plains states, not in New England.

But on June 1 at around 1 p.m., at the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., meteorologist Greg W. Carbin and his colleagues were concerned enough at what they were seeing on their computer screens that they did something rare: They issued a “tornado watch” for the Pioneer Valley and surrounding counties in Western Massachusetts.

And within hours of issuing that alert, three tornadoes -- the most destructive outbreak in more than half a century in the Bay State -- touched down, wreaking havoc throughout the region.

“That part of New England gets less than one tornado watch a year. I grew up in Vermont and never saw a tornado,” Carbin said.

“But, when I looked at the conditions that morning, they looked like a pretty classic case. The pattern suggested it was going to be a big day for New England,” he said.

A big day, indeed.

The principal tornado to hit that day would have been a monster wherever it landed. It had a path 39 miles long.

According to the Storm Prediction Center, from 1981 to 2010, the median path length of tornadoes -- half were longer, half were shorter -- in the United States was just a half-mile.

More than 1,200 tornadoes touch down in the U.S. annually, more than in any other country. Perhaps two or three materialize in Massachusetts each year, but they are nearly always weak, short-lived phenomena. By contrast, the state of Texas gets an average of 139 tornadoes a year.

Tornadoes need certain elements to form: a mass of cold air, a mass of warm, moist air and winds.

In the Plains states, warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico can move north in the spring, meeting cold, dry air coming down from Canada. Along the boundary of the two air masses, warm air, which is less dense than cold air, rises and the moisture in it condenses into rain, forming thunderstorms that are being acted on by the strong winds.

Like a whirlpool forming where bath water goes down the drain, the currents of rising warm air can begin to spin if there are winds aloft -- especially winds going in various directions, called “wind shear.”

Winds going in opposite directions can spin a column of air, just as your palms moving in opposite directions can spin a pencil between them. In the atmosphere, the vortex that’s created can become a tornado.

Michael Rawlins, a climatologist at the University of Massachusetts Climate Research Center in Amherst, said the conditions that spawn large tornadoes are more common in the Plains states than in the Northeast.

“In New England, the contrast between cold, dry air from the north and warm, moist air from the south is not as extreme compared to the Great Plains region,” he said.

Added Carbin, “The Atlantic is a great source of moisture for snowstorms and nor’easters because it’s cool. But, it is not a great source of warm, moist air.”

On June 1, however, all of the ingredients for a tornado made a rare appearance in the region. There was a flow into New England of especially warm, moist air from the Southwest. There was also a flow of cold, dry air into New England from the Northwest. And strong winds, to get the storm and rising air currents spinning, were available.

“You have to get a series of events come together all at once to create the situation we had. It was rare,” said abc40 meteorologist Ed Carroll, who was on duty the day the tornadoes ripped through Western Massachusetts.

“The warm, moist air at the surface was the biggest factor,” Carroll said. “But, there was also a lot of wind speed at the surface -- at 5,000 feet, 10,000 feet and 20,000 feet -- and the wind was screaming. It was very high velocity and going in different directions at every level.”

The volatile winds were also a major factor, according to Rawlins.

“Tornadoes are more likely to form if a thunderstorm is rotating. Strong wind shear -- winds of differing direction and speed with increasing height -- together with strong updrafts, tend to produce thunderstorms which rotate,” he said.

The final event that day that created conditions ripe for a tornado was the appearance of the sun early in the day, Carroll said.

“It started to cook everything at the surface, raising the temperature and causing the air to lift,” he said. “I knew we were in trouble.”

However, regardless of the severity of the conditions as they developed, it was almost impossible to say with any certainty that a tornado would form -- almost until it did form, according to Carbin.

“There needs to be a really fine balance of ingredients. If you are off just a little bit, you have a rain storm instead of a tornado,” he said.

Carroll agreed.

“I’ve seen tornado watches get issued and sometimes thunderstorms don’t even develop. The atmosphere is so fluid that almost anything can happen.”

“But on that day,” Carroll said, “the situation only got worse.”

'These folks, in ways large and small, were all heroes. They won’t get medals; they certainly won’t feel like heroes. But to one who was witness to, but distant from, their direct troubles, their determination and courage was unquestionable.'

Republican file photoThe tornado approaching Springfield on the afternoon of June 1.

By GIL SALK

On June 6, I met heroes.

Five days after the tornado hit, I drove to Springfield from Connecticut to offer my services helping with the cleanup.

I ended up in a neighborhood of middle-class, single-family homes adjacent to Watershops Pond and between Springfield College and Cathedral High School.

My first stop was along Arcadia Boulevard, across the road from the pond. The people there said they had just finished loading a rental truck with furniture and said they didn’t need help at the moment, but we chatted for awhile.

What stands out in my mind was the woman’s comment: “We could never see the pond from the house before.”

I looked behind me. Trees, many too large for three of me to get arms around, lay scattered like a game of pick-up sticks, some with roots torn from the ground, and most of the others snapped off. I could see the pond, and on the far side, incongruously, a kayaker enjoying the cloudless sky and calm waters.

Around the corner, on Mary Street, the first house I encountered simply wasn’t there any more. All that was left was its basement. The car in the driveway was partway onto its roof and had a gaping hole in the windshield.

The owner, a young man, said he was in the house, beneath a sink in the cellar, when the tornado hit. He remembered starting down the stairs, but not reaching the basement, not curling beneath the sink, not hearing the inevitable freight-train roar (which he said all his neighbors heard), not the destruction of the house.

“But, hey, I’m alive,” he said.

He was standing and talking with a friend about how he retrieved his trash barrel from the splintered, 10-foot stump of a tree between his house and his back neighbor’s. He knew it was his because he had drilled two holes in the bottom so water could leak out.

I noticed a 2-foot statue of a bird placed in the center of the top of the concrete steps that had led to the house, a good perch for it to survey the surrounding flattened landscape.

The owner didn’t know what he was going to do, except that he had tickets to that night’s Boston Bruins game, and he was going. I commented that it seemed like a good idea to take an emotional break, and that I had some sense of what he was dealing with from having spent a week in Biloxi helping clean up after Hurricane Katrina – but that experience of mine was nowhere near actually having gone through such a disaster.

He leaned forward and shared, “And, I hope you never do! I hope you never do.”

At the next house where I stopped, I spoke with a woman. After I offered my help, she pointed to a red “X” painted on her door.

“That means I can’t let anybody in -- no volunteers, no contractors, nobody who didn’t live here,” she said.

Her house was one of many still standing, but condemned as unlivable.

I walked up and down the streets of the neighborhood in the hot sun. No trees were left standing to provide shade. Instead, they had crashed through houses, or were leaning against them, or blocking driveways, or already chainsawed and stacked at the curb – rows and rows and stacks and stacks of logs lined the streets.

There were few sounds. No barking dogs. No children’s voices. The air seemed to absorb the sounds of people talking to each other.

It wasn’t silent, but there was a palpable muffling of the noise of human activity.

Everywhere I looked, there were electric company linemen working to restore power to the neighborhood, cable companies getting TV service back to the area. Many of the cars along the roads belonged to insurance adjusters, working, I hope, to start the process of compensating people for their property losses. Many people who were there were waiting for adjusters to arrive.

Tree removal services, trash haulers and contractors were there in numbers. The city (or somebody) had already been through to clear the streets.

But, the houses – the homes. Many were nothing but piles of wood and siding, with nothing vertical remaining where the house had stood. Others were partially collapsed, or had gaping holes in roofs and walls, or blown-off roof shingles or blown-in windows.

Some showed no structural damage I could see from the street, but had the red “X”s on their front doors. Many had doors and windows boarded, and blue tarps had begun to appear on rooftops.

This one small neighborhood – probably fewer than 200 homes – was a tiny blip along the 39-mile path of destruction the tornado carved across Western Massachusetts. The inner city is much worse, as is the town of Monson. But, the violence that occurred here rips at the heart. As I walked and talked, I repeatedly had to swallow a lump in my throat.

But nearly unanimously, the residents with whom I spoke were optimistic about the future, seemingly more concerned about neighbors than about themselves, grateful for help already received and offering me thanks and blessings for my offer to help.

This is not to say that they weren’t in pain, suffering losses, feeling overwhelmed, worried about relocation.

They had used the weekend to move what they needed to move and to begin cleaning up. And, they saw themselves as being able to overcome.

These folks, in ways large and small, were all heroes. They won’t get medals; they certainly won’t feel like heroes. But to one who was witness to, but distant from, their direct troubles, their determination and courage was unquestionable.

Of course, I didn’t get to talk with those who weren’t on the scene. Elderly people had moved somewhere, to family, or to shelters. Those who couldn’t get time off from work were at their jobs. Some simply didn’t have a home to come back to. I can’t speak about any of them, and I can’t stop thinking about them.

I didn’t get to do any physical help on this trip. They were done for the time being, or not yet ready for help. All of them expressed gratitude for my being there, and I hope that my presence gave them a little emotional support.

I’m a photographer. I had my camera, and there were breathtaking pictures to be taken. But, I decided very early to leave my camera in the car – to take photos would have seemed too intrusive to me, a slap in the face of those who were still absorbing the instantaneous change in their lives.

Gil Salk, of Hebron, Conn., grew up on Mayfair Avenue and East Alvord Street in Springfield in the 1950s and ‘60s. He returned to his hometown on June 6 to offer help with the cleanup to victims of the June 1 tornado.

Police are now probing whether two gunshot victims were injured in the same shooting incident in the Brightwood section of the city.

SPRINGFIELD -- Detectives are investigating whether a second shooting victim who turned up at a city hospital for treatment early Sunday morning may have been targeted in the same North End shooting that injured a man on Orchard Street, according to Springfield Police Lt. Maurice T. Kearney.

In that incident, a man showed up at Baystate Medical Center for treatment of a gunshot wound to the buttocks after someone opened fire on him outside 46 Orchard St. in the Brightwood section of the city, said Kearney, who was unsure of the time of the shooting.

A short while later, a second man arrived at Mercy Medical Center with a gunshot wound to his buttocks, Kearney said. And now police are probing whether the injured men were both shot during the Orchard Street altercation.

"It's under investigation," Kearney said, adding that detectives think the shooting victims might be linked to the same incident.

It remains unclear if the shootings occurred late Saturday night or early Sunday. Police were unable to immediately disclose a time frame for the incidents.

Kearney said no suspects were in custody as of 5 a.m. Sunday.

City police said the fatal shooting happened around 1:30 a.m. Sunday outside The Clover Cafe, 104 High St., where a 26-year-old man received a fatal gunshot wound to the head.

HOLYOKE -- Police are investigating the city's first homicide of the year, which occurred around 1:30 a.m. Sunday outside The Clover Cafe, 104 High St., where a 26-year-old Holyoke man was fatally wounded by a single gunshot to the head.

"It was one shot to the face,” Holyoke Police Sgt. Laurence Cournoyer said.

Authorities would not disclose the victim’s identity early Sunday morning because family members still had to be notified.

"We have nobody in custody at this point. (Detectives) are still interviewing witnesses," Cournoyer said.

Police did not immediately release any information about a motive or possible suspect, but they are asking anyone who may have witnessed the fatal shooting, or the events leading up to it, to call them at (413) 322-6900.

Details still remain sketchy, but investigators don't believe the victim was a patron of the Clover Cafe at the time of the shooting. Cournoyer said a preliminary investigation suggests the victim may have been chased to the corner of High and Lyman streets, the location of the bar, where he was fatally shot.

The homicide was Holyoke's first since September 2010, when 20-year-old Leroy Cortes of Greenfield was allegedly gunned down by 24-year-old Holyoke resident Luis Rivera in The Flats section of the city.

This is not the first time gunfire has erupted near the Clover Café. Last November, a 23-year-old West Springfield man was shot in the chest outside the well-known High Street establishment.

Meanwhile, a disturbance related to Sunday’s homicide in Holyoke occurred outside Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, where the Holyoke man was rushed to following the shooting.

"Some hospital security guards got knocked down," Holyoke Police Sgt. Richard Stuart said, adding that some of the victim's supporters were banging on the ambulance door after it arrived at Baystate's Emergency Room entrance.

Springfield police were called to help quell the disturbance, according to Springfield Police Lt. Maurice T. Kearney.

Stuart said a Holyoke officer was at the scene of the hospital scuffle, where emotions were running high. The officer drove the ambulance to Baystate to give emergency medical personnel a chance to revive the gunshot victim during the trip from Holyoke to Springfield, Stuart said.

The victim was pronounced dead at Baystate, according to authorities.

More information will be posted on MassLive.com as it becomes available.

Bruins fans pack Beantown for victory party, a woman is killed by mystery metal chunk on Connecticut highway, and more of today's headlines.

AP PhotoLisa Adams racing her C1 canoe through a rapid during the First In Boating Arkansas canoe competition in Salida, Colo., on Friday, June 17, 2011.

• Paroled lifers pose high risk of new crimes, according to Boston Globe analysis [Boston.com]


• What has teeth and is black and gold all over? Smiling Bruins fans, thousands of whom packed downtown Boston to celebrate the B's Stanely Cup win [Boston.com]


• United flights resume after 5-hour computer failure [NYTimescom]


• President Obama’s views on gay marriage ‘evolving’ [NYTimes.com]


• Backlog of foreclosure cases gives a reprieve to homeowners [NYTimes.com]


• Woman killed by metal debris on I-95 in Connecticut [Courant.com]


• Bear cub killed by car on I-84 in Connecticut [Courant.com]


• Sega says hackers stole data of 1.29 million users [BBC.co.UK]



WATCH an Associated Press video retrospective on the life of saxophonist Clarence Clemons, of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band fame:




• Twitter posts tagged #westernma in Western Mass. [MassLive.com]


• Read more News Links »


• Do you have News Links? Send them our way or tweet them to @masslivenews

NOTE: Users of modern browsers can open each link in a new tab by holding 'control' ('command' on a Mac) and clicking each link.

The Whip City got hit by the June 1 tornado, but it didn't get whipped nearly as badly as other parts of the region, where businesses, homes and trees were destroyed, leveled and uprooted.

Staff map by BOB RICHThe EF3 tornado touched down in Westfield and headed eastward.

WESTFIELD -- This city considers itself lucky – or more lucky than neighboring communities.

The June 1 tornadoes spared Westfield’s 41,000 residents the severe damage inflicted as the storms sped across Hampden County, and now all that remains here is for homeowners to attend to clearing the last of the debris from their properties.

“Westfield was lucky,” said emergency management director Jimmy D. Wiggs. “There was damage, but not nearly as much in other communities. I am happy with Westfield’s response to the emergency. That response shows how great our community is in a time of need.”

It was Westfield’s southeastern neighborhoods of Shaker Heights, Glenwood Heights, Birch Bluff and Knollwood where one of the tornadoes touched down before launching on a destructive path through the region.

The storm only lasted seconds in Westfield, striking Munger Hill Elementary School at 4:16 p.m. on its way to east.

In all, 250 residential homes suffered some damage, ranging from broken windows to ripped roofs. Three were listed as extensively damage, one on Glenwood Drive, one in Birch Bluff and 266 Shaker Road, which was eventually condemned because of the tree piercing its roof, according to Wiggs.

Munger Hill, located on Mallard Lane, was closed June 2 and 3 because of a section of its roof was torn off by the storm. A 20-foot section of the steel roofing wound up dumped some 300 feet away in a swimming pool of a home at 84 Cardinal Lane.

Despite erroneous reports by state officials that two deaths had occurred in Westfield, the city recorded no serious injuries from the storm among its citizenry.

Electrical power was lost to about 4,500 customers of Westfield Gas & Electric Department because of storm damage here and to two Northeast Utility transmission lines originating in Agawam.

The municipal utility was able to have power restored to 80 percent of those customers in less than two hours, and to the remaining customers within 48 hours. Crews from municipal electric departments in Chicopee, Holyoke, Russell and South Hadley helped with the restoration work.

“Initially I thought it would take many days for our crews to repair the damage,” said Westfield utility manager Daniel Howard. “I never could have imagined that we would get everyone back in service in just over 48 hours. Dedication and teamwork by all involved in the event was truly impressive.”

A satellite office of the Hampden Registry of Deeds, normally closed on Thursdays, opened on June 2 to handle business for the main office at the Hall of Justice in Springfield which was closed by the tornado. It managed to collect $6,000 in fees and closing costs on real estate transactions in a single day.

Wiggs characterized volunteer efforts as “heartwarming. It was neighbor helping neighbor,” he said. He added that he hopes city residents reach out to their neighbors in other communities to help with the recovery and rebuilding effort across the region.

He and Mayor Daniel M. Knapik said a beautification project will be launched in the fall to restore the school grounds with new tree plantings and to remove stumps from those damaged in the tornado.

“I am proud of this city’s response to the emergency,” said Knapik. “I am proud of the response by city workers, volunteers and for the mutual aid we received. Westfield was lucky in a sense because the impact could have been a lot greater than it was. Everyone pulled together in the response. It was heartwarming to see neighbors helping neighbors.”

Friendly’s restaurant on East Main Street was joined by the Munger Hill School cafeteria staff in providing more than 400 meals, 30 cases of water and ice cream for the volunteers as they worked cleanup duty.

Westfield State University President Evan S. Dobelle offered the city use of the campus, if necessary, as a temporary site for the school; and the university hosted a meeting of the state School Building Authority. The meeting was held on June 8 after state treasurer Steven Grossman and authority director Katherine Craven toured schools in Springfield as well as Munger Hill School to assess damage. They promised assistance to both communities in repairing the damage. 

Trooper Kyle Glick said there were at least three "smash and grabs ... that we know of" between Saturday night and Sunday morning.

View full size

SHELBURNE - State police are reminding citizens to keep the valuables in their cars out of sight after a series of overnight break-ins.

Trooper Kyle Glick said there were at least three "smash and grabs ... that we know of" between Saturday night and Sunday morning. Windows were broken and valuables stolen from the seats.

Glick said that even if the item doesn't have financial value, a thief might think it does. A purse, no matter if it's empty or full of money, makes for a likely target.

"Somebody walks by your car and sees something of value, they're going to smash the window and grab it," he said.

lice said the man allegedly jumped off a boat early Sunday morning.

Republican file photo

SOUTHWICK- Police are continuing to search for a 22-year-old man they believe could be in the Congamond Lakes.

Police said the man was with friends on a boat and allegedly jumped off early Sunday morning.

Officials in Southwick said the state police and environmental police are handling the search.

More information will be provided as it becomes available.

This special section provides a retrospective look at June 1 tornadoes and how we are working together with all of you to rebuild this place we call home. Watch video

Life can change in an instant.

It's a concept all of us know well.

So, too, is the fact that in New England, the weather can change in a minute.

On June 1, life changed in a flash here in Western Massachusetts; and it was the weather which was responsible.

That afternoon, three tornadoes tore a destructive and deadly path across the region, the writers, photographers and editors of The Republican went about their work of chronicling the events as they unfolded. Stories, photographs and videos were posted online at MassLive.com in the minutes and hours after the storms and as the reality of the devastation unfolded. The most major of the twisters carved a 39-mile swath through the region, from Westfield to Charlton and resulted in the deaths of three people; the two others touched down in Wilbraham and Brimfield, leaving property damage but no injuries.

In the days and weeks which followed, our staff has continued the work of telling the stories of community - the recovery, the rebuilding - which emerge daily; it has been a moving, inspiring experience for us all. We will continue to tell the story as it evolves in the months ahead.

As a team, we are proud to carry on The Republican's long tradition of being the primary source of news in our region.

Four employees of The Republican lost their homes as a result of the tornadoes, and we have banded together as a "family" to support them, just as scores of other workplaces, schools, churches and individuals are working to help all of the victims recover their lives. We are part of this COMMUNITY effort.

This special section provides a retrospective look at June 1 tornadoes and how we are working together with all of you to rebuild this place we call home.

Cynthia G. Simison
Managing Editor
The Republican
csimison@repub.com

• Torn Asunder: Tornadoes carve path of destruction through Western Massachusetts
• Outpouring of support from agencies, volunteers follows Western Massachusetts tornadoes
• Rebuilding: Small stories, big hearts follow Western Massachusetts tornadoes
• Springfield: City of Homes continues to stabilize, begins recovery
• West Springfield: Tornado took the lives of two city residents and devastated much of Merrick neighborhood
• Monson: Residents ready to rebuild
• Westfield: City 'lucky' to see less damage than elsewhere in county
• Wilbraham: Residents recall and recover from tornadoes of June 1
• Brimfield: Residents pulled together after tornado ripped through the eastern Hampden County town
• Former Springfield resident attempts to grasp enormity of tornado damage while lending a helping hand
• The perfect storm: weather conditions were particularly ripe for tornadoes on June 1, according to weather experts
• Minnechaug football players help tornado cleanup at Wilbraham church; FEMA disaster centers open
• Where tornado-ravaged Western Massachusetts businesses can get help
• West Springfield businessman sets up scholarship fund for daughters of Angelica Guerrero, who gave life to save daughter from tornado
• Mapping the path of tornadoes through Western Mass.
• John Garvey's tornado photo storms around the world
• South Hadley lemonade stand raises over $1,000
• Video: The Path of the Storm

The last incident involved two people from Springfield and one from Northampton in a fatal motorcyle accident on the Massachusetts Turnpike in Natick.

Springfield Fire Department photo by Dennis G. LegerSpringfield firefighters extinguished a basement fire at 110 Lorimer St. in Indian Orchard early Saturday morning. Three people were injured, one seriously.

Four people with ties to Western Massachusetts died in incidents over the weekend.

Matthew Babin, 43, went into cardiac arrest after a fire in Springfield's Indian Orchard section sent three other people to the hospital for smoke inhalation.

Five of the six people who were inside the 1-story, ranch-style home at the time of the incident managed to escape, but firefighters found a 43-year-old man lying on the living room floor.

As of Monday morning, no arrests had been announced in the shooting death of a 26-year-old man in Holyoke, later identified as Oscar Castro.

Police said the man apparently was chased to the corner of Lyman and High streets, where he was fatally wounded outside the Clover Cafe at 104 High St.

In Southwick, a 22-year-old man, who also had not been publicly identified as of Monday morning, died following an early morning swimming incident in the Congamond Lakes.

The 22-year-old man .... jumped from a boat into Middle Pond - the largest of Congamond's three ponds - around 1 a.m. Sunday and hasn't been seen since then, according to law enforcement officials investigating the incident.

And finally, 40-year old Dewayne C. Holmes, 40, of Springfield, was killed Sunday morning in a motorcycle accident on the Massachusetts Turnpike in Natick, according to the Metro West Daily News.

Police said Holmes was driving a 2008 Suzuki GSX 1300 in the far right lane beside a 2006 Suzuki GSX 1300 motorcycle driven by Robert Cephas, 39, of Springfield, when the two bikes made contact, the Framingham-based newspaper reported.

State police said both drivers were thrown from their bikes, with one of the motorcycles hitting a 2007 Infiniti FX driven by a Northborough man in the far right travel lane.

Obituaries from The Republican.

John R. Clifford

HOLYOKE - John R. "Jack" Clifford, 82, of Southwick Road, Westfield died Saturday at the Soldiers' Home of Holyoke. Born in Springfield, was a 1947 graduate of West Springfield High School and lived in West Springfield most of his life before moving to Westfield in 1985. He was a supervisor of production for Friendly Ice Cream and retired in 1984 after 33 years. He served in the U.S. Navy aboard the U.S.S. Midway during the Korean War and also at Westover Air Force Base during the Berlin Airlift. He was a member of the West Springfield Elks Club and the American Legion Post 2714. He was an avid bowler and gardener.

Obituaries from The Republican:

• 
  Burgoyne, Susan M. "Sue" (LeMay)




• 
  Clifford, John R. "Jack"
  



• 
  Dill, William E.
  




• Hadley, Lexine A.
  




• 
  Ham, Dana A.
  



• 
  Hebert, Claire C. (Bergeron)




• 
  Kelly, Dorothy M. (Kibbe)
  



• 
  Lally, F. Bernard
  




• Lusignan, Barbara A. (Hunter)
  




• 
  Mirabella, Edna G.
  



• 
  Motyka, Peter J.




• 
  Nolan, Kenneth F.
  



• 
  O'Brien, Francis E.
  




• Scott, Louise K.
  




• 
  Todd, William D.
  

Police said they believe the shooting was gang-related.

Updates a story published Monday, June 20, at 6:20 a.m.

HOLYOKE – Police believe the shooting that took the life of 26-year-old city resident Oscar Castro outside the Clover Cafe early Sunday was gang-related.

Castro, of 23 Essex St., was outside the cafe, at 104 High St., when he was fatally wounded by a single-gunshot to the head at about 1:30 a.m.

“This was a gang shooting. It appears as though this was La Familia gang,” said Holyoke police Capt. Arthur R. Monfette, adding that he does not believe that Castro was a member of the gang. “I think LaFamilia was out for him.”

Castro’s shooting marks the city’s first homicide of the year. Police have yet to make any arrests.

Police have said they don’t believe that Castro had been a patron of the Clover Cafe at the time of the shooting. A preliminary investigation suggests the victim may have been chased to the corner of High and Lyman streets, the location of the bar, where he was fatally shot.

Those with information on the shooting are asked to call the detective bureau at (413) 322-6900.

Monfette said the Clover Cafe has been the scene of violence a number of time before and that he is compiling reports on past incidents to forward to the License Commission for review.

Last November, a 23-year-old West Springfield man was shot in the chest outside the well-known High Street establishment.

Castro was rushed to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield and police reported there was a disturbance when his ambulance arrived there.

“Some hospital security guards got knocked down,“ Holyoke Police Sgt. Richard Stuart said, adding that some of the victim’s supporters were banging on the ambulance door after it arrived at Baystate’s emergency entrance. Springfield police were called to help quell the disturbance, according to Springfield Police Lt. Maurice T. Kearney.

The state Convention Center Authority has backed the use of the MassMutual Center as a disaster relief shelter for tornado victims.

File photo by Dave Roback / The RepublicanReynalis Mathews is seen with her mother, Cynthia Gonzalez, at the MassMutual Center Shelter on June 1.

SPRINGFIELD – Make no mistake about it, the MassMutual Center is in the business of delivering hospitality.

Conventions, business breakfasts, concerts, hockey games, it’s all in a day’s – or a night’s – work.

Little did the staff know, though, that they’d be doing it 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at least for the foreseeable future.

As one week turned into two, and the three-week point arrived, the downtown civic center is continuing to provide a temporary home for area residents displaced – and left with little, or nothing – by the June 1 tornadoes.

“I am so proud of the staff we have,” says Matthew A. Hollander, general manager of the MassMutual Center, as he reflects on how his workplace turned into a safe harbor for those who lost their homes to the tornadoes.

“Our food and beverage folks are working around the clock to support the shelter. I am proud of the caring they have,” he said. “We’re the hospitality business, but this was outside of our wheel house.”

As Hollander recalls it, on that afternoon, staff members at the MassMutual Center were busy making final preparations for the Minnechaug Regional High School prom. Student and school organizers were already in the building, touching up the final details for their big night.

Hollander says he was en route on the MassachusettsTurnpike back to Springfield from a meeting when he got an email alert about the approaching storm.

Then came the call from one of his staff members, Joe Flanagan, to let him know what was unfolding at the MassMutual Center, where there had been minor damage and some unexpected visitors, Hollander recalled.

City police officers had arrived with a group of little children and their caretakers from the Square One daycare center just down Main Street.

“We had space where we could set them up in a private area and keep the children calm,” said Hollander. “Then, with the continuous cycle of weather, public safety officials were directing people to our building for immediate safety. We’re a hospitality venue, so we sprang to action.”

The Minnechaug delegation was intent that the prom would carry on; it did, albeit a little smaller and with a slightly different mood than might have originally been planned.

“Many of the kids were already on their way, and the school officials were already there. The principal wanted to move forward,” Hollander said. “We had to prepare a safe shelter (for the tornado victims), but we also had the added complexity of an event going forward.”

Hollander encountered the tornado’s remnants as he drove along the turnpike; “I never saw the funnel cloud per se, but I was driving through some insane hail and strong winds. I managed to get through that in a couple of minutes,” he said.

Calls from Mayor Domenic J. Sarno and from the Pioneer Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross asked if the civic center could be used as a temporary shelter. The MassMutual Center team went to work, and amidst a major convention that weekend and some graduation ceremonies, it temporarily turned to long-term assistance, Hollander recalled.

“As it turned out, the need far exceeded the capacity at shelters (the Red Cross and other agencies) had set up (in Springfield),” Hollander said.

Hollander came to Western Massachusetts from south Florida, so he’s got more than a passing familiarity with disaster-relief efforts.

“I had the occasion in 2004 to go through some hurricane activity. I’ve seen the outpouring of community support,” he said. What’s impressed him, Hollander said, has been the speed and intensity with which the relief efforts came together after the tornadoes.

“What’s (been) amazing is how quickly it came together; the generosity has been incredible,” said Hollander, who is a member of the board for the Red Cross chapter. “I’ve met amazing people in the shelter, and the resilience of the people going through this is also incredible.”

He cites the example of a man who lost his home in the city’s Sound End, but who, along with his daughter, escaped uninjured.

“I spent some time with him, listening about how he and his daughter rode out storm in their family room, with the roof flying off the building and the winds swirling around him,” Hollander said. “He is just the most thankful person you can imagine. Every day, he’s at the shelter helping, talking with others, being helpful with that process of recovering. He’s very reflective of the quality of people in our community, in the South End.”

Even after the man returned to the site of his home, finding it devastated with no personal items to collect and the remaining structure too questionable to remain standing, “it really didn’t matter to him,” Hollander said. “He was so thankful to be safe.”

Maine officials said the man apparently drowned in Frenchman Bay after he went kayaking off Hancock Point and got caught by stiff winds.

BAR HARBOR, Maine — Maine Marine Patrol officials said a Massachusetts man apparently drowned in Frenchman Bay after he went kayaking off Hancock Point near Bar Harbor and got caught by stiff winds.

Sgt. Jay Carroll said the man's body was recovered off the Porcupine Islands by the Coast Guard Sunday afternoon. The kayak had been found earlier. The identity of the man, who is in his 20s, was being withheld until officials notified his family.

Carroll said the man and his wife were on vacation, and the man set out alone from Hancock Point around 7 a.m. Sunday. Carroll said the conditions were rough, with wind gusts of up to 35 mph.

The state Medical Examiner's Office will decide whether an autopsy will be conducted.

Start the week informed with Business Monday.

Photo by Mark M. Murray/The RepublicanJake Matroni, an electrictian from Icon West Corp . of Springfield, works on the lighting at the new Mama Iguana's Restaurant in Springfield.

In this week's Business Monday from The Republican:

Friendly's co-founder S. Prestley Blake pens book
If any book deserves a happy ending, it’s “A Friendly Life”, the new autobiography of Friendly Ice Cream Corp. co-founder S. Prestley Blake. Read more »

Springfield Museums help tell Friendly story
The museum opened an exhibit this spring on the early days of Springfield mainstay Friendly Ice Cream Corp. stocked with memorabilia collected, and donated by co-founders Curtis L. Blake and S. Prestley Blake. The museum even has the original counter from that opened at 161 Boston Road on July 8, 1935. Read more »

After 30 years in business, owners Bruce and Meg Cummings of Southampton Antiques are closing their shop to start a new chapter
As they prepare for the move, Bruce and Meg Cummings are selling off hundreds of antiques worth thousands of dollars, including a number of treasures that
they have had in their home since they moved in 30 years ago. Read more »

After Midnight, Easthampton's newest art gallery, opens in Eastworks
The gallery’s owners, Rosemary Barrett and Kevin MacDonald, are both artists who aim to create a business that blurs the line between a shop and a gallery. Read more »

More Business Monday:

• Voices of the Valley: Cheryl Hislop, The Walk-in Closet, Granby

• PeoplesBank pledges $200,000 to tornado relief for Western Massachusetts

• West Springfield company has hearing aid innovation

• Mama Iguana's Restaurant opens in downtown Springfield at former site of Basketball Hall of Fame

• Webster Bank to close 5 Connecticut branches, 6 overall, in restructuring

• National Labor Relations Board shows interest in protecting the right of workers to speak freely on Facebook, Twitter

• Editorial: 'Right to Repair' bill pits car mechanics against high-tech executives

• Commentary: Fixing Medicare deficit cannot be done simply by cutting loose the sickest and the poorest

• Consumer spending in China fades as high inflation slows down once booming Chinese economy

• UConn economic survey predicts decline in jobless rate despite troubling signs in home sales, economy

• Bradley International Airport's board of directors disbanded in favor of Connecticut Airport Authority

Notebooks:

• Western Massachusetts business etc.: Panera Bread raises money for Boys & Girls Club, Mountain Resort to run Bromley Mountain, and more

• Pioneer Valley Business Calendar for June 21 - July 13

• Business bits: Wampanoag tribe interested in greyhound racing, AVEO looks to public stock offering, UMass Dartmouth ordered to pay $300K in discrimination case, and more

The study focused on portable pools, from small wading pools less than 18 inches deep to inflatable pools and other soft-sided pools that can reach depths of 4 feet.

AP Photo

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A child dies in a portable pool every five days during warm-weather months, according to the first U.S. study on child drownings in such pools, a statistic that the study's senior author says demonstrates the need for consumer education and affordable protection devices.

The research being published Monday in the journal Pediatrics shows 209 deaths and 35 near-drownings of children under 12 from 2001 through 2009. Most of the children, 94 percent, were under 5, and 81 percent of the accidents happened during summer months.

"The anecdotal evidence was suggesting that because portable pools are readily available in many convenience stores and malls, and they're relatively cheap, parents would pick them up, take them home, quickly assemble them, and all this would be done without a lot of forethought about the safety aspects," said senior author, Dr. Gary A. Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus.

The study focused on portable pools, from small wading pools less than 18 inches deep to inflatable pools and other soft-sided pools that can reach depths of 4 feet. It was conducted by researchers at Nationwide hospital and Independent Safety Consulting in Rockville, Md. They say the findings are comparable to drownings related to in-ground pools.

Many safety methods used for permanent pools, such as fencing, pool alarms, safety covers and removable or lockable ladders, are too expensive or not available for families who purchase portable pools, said Smith, who also is a pediatrics professor at the Ohio State University College of Medicine.

The Association of Pool & Spa Professionals supports "layers of protection," and the study underscores the importance of active, undistracted adult supervision, said Carvin DiGiovanni a senior director at the Alexandria, Va.-based association.

"The primary layer of protection is constant adult supervision supplemented by barriers, alarms and other related devices," he said. "We encourage homeowners to purchase the additional layer of protection that works for them knowing that they would be more likely to use it."

The study shows that children were supervised by adults in fewer than half, 43 percent, of the drownings and near-drownings, and that most, 73 percent, were at home.

Among other data, the report shows CPR was administered before emergency crews arrived in 15 percent of the fatalities and 17 percent of near-drownings, numbers that help show "it's time for us to begin requiring that people learn how to do CPR," perhaps by adding it to high school curricula, said Susan Baker, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research & Policy in Baltimore.

"That to me is a reminder that every one of us ought to be knowledgeable about how to do CPR and willing to jump in and do it immediately," said Baker, who was not involved in the study.

Smith said drownings overall represent the second-leading cause of injury deaths among young children and are different from other childhood accidents because there's no second chance.

"I tell parents that drowning is quick, it's silent and it's final," he said.