The neighborhoods behind the Town Office Building, which also lost part of its roof, sustained the worst damage.
Shawn Menard, right, reaches to help homeowner Tony Esposito from atop the rubble of his home in Monson Thursday, one day after it was destroyed by a tornado. Esposito said no one was injured at his home. Residents of 19 communities in central and western Massachusetts woke to widespread damage Thursday, a day after at least two late-afternoon tornadoes shocked emergency officials with their suddenness and violence and caused the state's first tornado-related deaths in 16 years.Monson School Committee Chairman Jeffrey D. Lord said the high school graduation ceremony has been canceled in the wake of the devastating tornadoes that hit parts of Western Massachusetts Wednesday.. It was supposed to be held Friday night and now has been postponed indefinitely.
The neighborhoods behind the Town Office Building, which also lost part of its roof, sustained the worst damage. Homes on State Street, Bethany Road and Stewart Avenue were heavily damaged and in some cases missing altogether.
Kim E. Slozak, of 6 Bethany Road, said she was home alone when her husband called her about the tornado. She grabbed her cat, dog and kitten and got into the bathtub in the bathroom. The sound, she said, “was like jet engines.“
“I compare this to Dorothy’s house’ from the movie, the “Wizard of Oz,” she said as she gestured to the lopsided house.
“I could feel the house moving. I’m so glad we’re OK,“ Slozak said.
Slozak said she got out of the house by crawling out the window. She said everyone in her family is OK, and that she also was able to salvage a lot of pictures. She said they had planned a graduation party for her daughter, Kelly. But now it will be a party to celebrate that they are all alive.
Town Administrator Gretchen E. Neggers walked through the Bethany neighborhood with Police Chief Stephen Kozloski Jr., and selectmen Edward A. Maia and Richard Smith. Neggers said she does not know where the town offices will relocate, as the building cannot be used now.
Kozloski said he has not heard of any life-threatening injuries. The officials estimated that up to 60 homes are not habitable.
“This is unbelievable,“ Neggers said as she surveyed the destruction.
Trees and debris filled Bethany Road, and the scene only got worse along Stewart Avenue, where house after house was crushed to the ground.
Russell Bressette Jr. of Stewart Avenue said he just finished his bus route, and was in the process of making something to eat when the tornado struck. He said he barely made it into the cellar in time, and held on to a pipe as his house went into the air.
All that is left now of the Cape-style house is a pile of rubble. An emotional Bressette said he just lost his wife Carole in December. He said he was able to salvage some photos of her.
“I lost her in December and now this,“ he said.
Bressette said the house was moved 30 feet from the foundation, on to his Lincoln Towncar.
“All I have left is memories,“ Bressette said.
“All I’m happy for is that I’m alive and I can live to tell about it,“ Bressette said.
Family members were sifting through the rubble of his home to look for his belongings.
Fellow bus driver Heather L. Emery of Monson walked up to Bressette in tears, and gave him a hug. She said the street was part of her bus route. She said she didn’t even get rain at her house in south Monson.
Laura Yarbrough was home with her 12-year-old son Joey when she heard about a ’tornado watch’ on the news. They were taking pictures on her porch and grabbed some of the hail, but when it got dark, they went inside. She and Joey got into the basement, but she couldn’t coax her dog Riley to go with them.
Nothing is left of the house, but Riley was rescued by firefighters from the rubble late Thursday morning.
“I still can’t believe we lived. He was screaming,“ she said of her son.
Her husband was at work, and her other son wasn’t home.
Anna Lin just moved into 15 Bethany Road in December. Her house also was destroyed.
Pia M. Rogers of 14 Bethany Road lost her barn in January due to heavy snow. Now the house is gone too. She found some stuffed animals and thought she spotted one of her sheets flying by in the wind.
“It could have been worse. We could have died,“ said Rogers, who wasn’t at home at the time.
She said she just replaced her two sons’ bicycles after the barn collapsed on them and will have to do it again. Rogers said the family will stay at her business, Sturbridge Coffee House in Sturbridge.
Many residents spent the morning walking around, surveying the damage and taking photographs. The Adams IGA supermarket had part of its roof off and damage to the front windows. The Unitarian Universalist Parish lost its steeple. Wires and trees littered roadways. Downtown Main Street had power lines down everywhere.
From Wales, there was no access point to Route 20. Route 19 was shut at Holland Road and access to Hollow Road also was blocked.