In response to the tornado, the worst in the Pioneer Valley in many years, Gov. Patrick called up 1,000 National Guard troops to help with the recovery. Watch video
SPRINGFIELD - Two tornadoes ripped through Greater Springfield Wednesday, killing two while carving a trail of destruction from Westfield to Sturbridge.
In the worst tornado outbreak in a century, nine communities were battered by back-to-back storms that left extensive damage and 38,000 homes without power late Wednesday night.
As emergency workers searched neighborhoods for people trapped in homes or cars, Gov. Deval L. Patrick declared a state of emergency, called up 1,000 National Guard troops to help with the recovery, and planned to visit Springfield late Wednesday night.
One death was reported in West Springfield where a woman was killed when a tree crushed a car on Main Street, and one in Brimfield, according to the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency.
The first funnel cloud touched down in Springfield at 4:30 p.m., battering downtown and the South End before slicing across East Forest Park and Sixteen Acres.
Brenda J. Gooch said she and coworkers saw the tornado forming over West Springfield from her perch on the 13th floor of First Financial Plaza overlooking Court Square where she works for Boston Medical.
“We were just transfixed by it. It was just huge - very dark. You could see debris and boards and everything flying through it.”
They saw it approaching.
“It was just horrible,” Gooch said. “It was like a freight train coming right at us. It was coming so fast.”
A supervisor herded everyone into a women’s rest room in the center of the floor.
The tornado felled at least 10 trees, some large oaks and some trees 4 and 5 feet in diameter. The debris and trees were in a circular pattern facing clockwise.
Emergency personnel zigzagged across the city, responding to reports of building collapses and fires, toppled trees and downed powerlines.
At Baystate Medical Center, 10 people were treated for traumatic injuries Wednesday night, and others with less serious injuries. Mercy Medical Center treated 23 with storm-injuries.
State Police reported tornado damage in Agawam, Charlton, Monson, Oxford, Springfield, West Springfield, Westfield, Wilbraham, and Sturbridge.
In Springfield, a command post was set up at 50 Maple St., and medical personnel were began treating minor injuries at Dunkin’ Donuts on at Main and Central Streets. The State Police have also activated the Special Emergency Response Team and members of the K-9 Unit to assist in searching damaged structures if the possibility of people are trapped in same.
In Springfield and elsewhere, trees blocked many of the major roads, snarling traffic for rescue workers and residents coming home from work.
The tornado hit Cathedral High School and St. Michael’s Academy on Surrey Road. One elderly priest with a broken leg and dislocated his shoulder was taken by ambulance from St. Michael’s.
Windows were blown out at Cathedral; students were inside the building at the time but were uninjured.
Especially hard hit in Springfield were Maple Street, East Forest Park, Court Square and Sixteen Acres.
The South End Community Center lost its roof, and frantic parents looking for children in an after school program were directed to the MassMutual Center, which was housing evacuees.
Stephen Frasier, a tornado-chaser and professor with the UMass Amherst Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, said tornadoes are not “as rare as you think.” Generally, there are one or two a year in Massachusetts. But Wednesday’s tornado “was a pretty big system,” and was “uncharacteristic,” Frasier said.
Graphic of communities affected by Wednesday's tornadoU.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, said he would tour the damage today, and was assured that a team from the Federal Emergency Management Agency would do so also.
In West Springfield, Pamela Arwady was shopping toward the back of the TJ Maxx store at Century Center on Memorial Drive when the storm hit at approximately 4:30 p.m.
“A woman came back running from the front of the store, yelling: ‘There’s a tornado in the parking lot. You’ve got to find shelter,’” Arwady recalled.
She ran, with a group of other shoppers and employees, into a steel-sided room in the back of the store.
“You could hear the rushing noise, and you could feel the air getting sucked out of the little area where we were,” she said. “I could feel it over my feet.”
In Westfield, police reported the southeast section of the city, including the Shaker Road, Shaker Heights and Pontoosic Road areas, were hit hard by the tornado when it touched down there. Police said there was “significant property damage” in the section of the city bordering Agawam and Southwick.
A section of roof at the Munger Hill Elementary School was blown off, and schools will be closed today, according to police Lt. Lawrence P. Valliere.
“Part of the roof was whacked,” said Valliere. Schools are closed in Wilbraham also today. Police and the municipal utility, the Westfield Gas & Electric Light Department, reported widespread power outages due to downed trees and utility poles brought down by the wind.
Ross and Theresa Rodgers, of 61 Pontoosic, had recently placed the home their family has lived in since 1905 on market for sale, only to find themselves now facing making repairs. “It blew out a window in the bathroom and brought down a large tree,” said Ross Rodgers.
He had dispatched his wife and their grandson to the basement for safety and then watched as a funnel cloud passed by their home, he added.
At the Hampden County Hall of Justice, Judge David Sacks had been preparing to drive a clerk to his car in the South End when he realized he had forgotten something and returned to his office on the fourth-floor shortly after 4:30 p.m.
“My timing couldn’t have been better - or worse,” Sacks said. “I saw the water spouts coming across the Memorial Bridge from my lobby.”
At that point, the judge returned to the basement garage for safety. The heaviest damage in Springfield was concentrated in downtown and South End.
Melissa Mozeleski of Chicopee said she was at work on the third floor of a medical building on Maple Street when she saw the storm come right across the river and directly toward her.
“I saw a funnel cloud,” she said.
“It was really scary and at that point I started looking to go to a lower level,” she said.
“A lot of people were frantic,” she said. No one in the building new where to go or what to do, she said.
She said it was one of the scariest moments of her life.
“To have this type of storm and not have a place to go, that’s what brought my anxiety way up,” she said.
Late Wednesday night, police and firefighters were still trying to track down residents to ensure their safety.