Minnechaug students received automated phone messages from their principal assuring them their prom had not been canceled.
SPRINGFIELD – Chan Thar Pye Sone, a senior at Minnechaug Regional High School in Wilbraham, scratched at least one item off his bucket list on Wednesday: surviving a tornado in a tuxedo.
He was among more than a hundred students who made it to the prom at the MassMutual Center in downtown Springfield, just about two hours after one of several tornadoes ripped through pockets of the city and the region.
Promgoers shared the venue with about 500 bereft and bedraggled evacuees from city neighborhoods who lost their homes to the twister.
Storm victims were confined to the first floor while a continuous parade of limousines pulled up and deposited giddy teens in front of the Main Street sporting, entertainment and banquet facility.
Some looked confusedly out at huge uprooted trees and other wreckage across from the center with puzzled faces when they arrived.
“Am I the first one here?” senior Anthony Prieto, 18, of Wilbraham, asked as he wandered into the lobby, adding: “Oh, phew,” when he spotted another limo arrive.
For Sone’s part, the Burma native said he and about 19 of his friends were posing for photos in a picturesque yard on Peak Road in Wilbraham when the winds kicked up.
“My friends all ran into the basement,” said Sone, a native of Burma. “I ran into one of the front rooms and tried to shoot some photos.”
He said the funnel cloud that touched down into the front yard on Peak Road looked “angry.”
Another member of the party, Anthony Yacavone, 17, said one of three limo drivers hired to take them to the prom cut away a downed tree that blocked their path. Off they went – making it to the prom just a half-hour late.
John Cushman, a senior from Hampden, said Springfield police rushed his party of eight inside from their limo as the threat of a second twister loomed.
While many of their classmates were unsure whether the event would be canceled, they were reassured by an automated message from their school principal.
Dinners were served a bit late, but students said the event may be extended because of the late start.
Some students said they were unaware of the scene that awaited them downtown.
“Now I don’t even recognize Springfield,” said Prieto, whose date, Lauren Jilson, 16, of Monson, said she knew her parents were safe but was unsure about the state of her family’s home as she prepared to dance the night away in a red satin gown.
There were widespread reports about devastation across Monson, but phone service was spotty at best following the storm so Jilson could not get any news.