The video shows the tornado whipping through the South End car park, battering cars with debris. Watch video
SPRINGFIELD – For two days, David C. DelVecchio couldn't bear to watch his eye-of-the-storm video of the Springfield tornado – images others are now clamoring to watch.
DelVecchio, of East Longmeadow, owner of the Union Car Park at 68 Union St. in the South End, had his surveillance camera running when the tornado made a direct hit on his business as it tore through the city a week ago – but initially he had no interest in looking to see what it filmed.
"I knew it was there the whole time – but I couldn't bring myself to look at it until Friday," DelVecchio said Tuesday afternoon, by which time word had spread nationally of the footage.
"It's just crazy, I've been getting millions of calls for the tape, from CNN, The Weather Channel, Boston, Connecticut, locally," DelVecchio said.
DelVecchio said the camera transfers the video it shoots to VHS videotape daily.
"I can't believe these tapes keep working. I've had them 15-16 years," he said.
DelVecchio said as the tornado approached, he was sitting at his desk, watching the storm approach on Channel 22.
"I was watching the tornado cruise along West Springfield, coming over the railroad bridge, then I saw it angling across the Memorial Bridge and thought, 'That thing's coming this way.'
"The building was pulsating, chattering, the overhead doors moving in and out. Things were starting to levitate in the garage – I said I better get out of this chair – I said I better just get on my knees and get next to this safe.
"It seemed like forever, but it was only 25-30 seconds – but a very scary 25-30 seconds, especially the sound, I'll never forget it," DelVecchio said.
DelVecchio has a parking contract with the Hampden District Attorney's office for about 90 cars; several court employees were headed to their vehicles as the late-afternoon storm struck.
"That woman who was in the black Subaru – if she hadn't pulled forward, that chunk of debris would have gone through the windshield, probably would have killed her," DelVecchio said. "I offered to show her the tape, but she wouldn't look at it."
DelVecchio's father built the business 50 years ago as Union Car Wash. His family has had businesses in the South End since the 1920s.
"Thank God Dad had it build the way he did. It's got a concrete deck roof here, that's the only reason I'm still alive," DelVecchio said.
Damage to DelVecchio's building included shattered windows and all three of his overhead doors blown away. The tornado took the business' sign on its path of destruction through Springfield, dropping it off at the MacDuffie School just under a mile away.
The storm also provided unwelcome advertising assistance.
"A guy called me from Auburn, Massachusetts [about 50 miles by car]," DelVecchio said. "He had one of these laminated advertising signs I have in the office, legal pad size. It says 'Union Car Wash.' He found it in his front yard.
"I told him he could keep it, I've got plenty of 'em."