Blaney, of Northampton, said the tornado reminded her of another first-hand experience: Sept. 11, 2001.
Sandra E. Blaney, of Northampton, was in her brand new Subaru Impreza when the tornado hit. She said she felt the windows blow in on her. "I didn't want to see what was happening," Blaney said.SPRINGFIELD – Sandra E. Blaney saw the trees on Bliss Street bending in the wind and thinking to herself: "Those trees are pretty old. There is no way they could break.”
Blaney had just moved to Northampton from New York City . She’s had her new job at Johnson and Hill Staffing for a few weeks. She’s had her 2011 Subaru only a few weeks.
And now she was stuck in traffic with a funnel cloud bearing down her.
“I closed my eyes,” she said. “I didn’t want to see what was going to happen.”
But she felt the car windows break inward. She felt the shards of broken glass hit her arms and neck. When she opened her eyes, the parking lot seemed a wasteland, she said. Cars were destroyed. Trees down. Bricks from nearby buildings littered the ground.
Blaney said she saw injured people. She was unhurt.
““I’m just shaken up. Shaking like a leaf,” she said.
She’d just started a job in Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001.
“This reminded me of that terrible day,” she said.