It took just minutes for the June 1 tornadoes to rip through this small town, killing one woman, injuring a few other people, damaging more than 140 homes and destroying about 40, and knocking down about 1,200 acres of trees in Brimfield State Forest.
The path of the EF1 and EF3 tornadoes through Brimfield. BRIMFIELD -- It took just minutes for the June 1 tornadoes to rip through this small town, killing one woman, injuring a few other people, damaging more than 140 homes and destroying about 40, and knocking down about 1,200 acres of trees in Brimfield State Forest.
Recovery efforts began immediately and are ongoing.
Rebuilding will take longer, but there is a determination to do it and do it well.
“We are doing everything we can to get things to a new normal,” said selectman Diane M. Panaccione.
“We are doing what needs to be done,” said the Rev. Ian Lynch, pastor of the First Congregational Church.
The church, which is home to the town’s senior center, has been feeding people, sending out water, ice and other necessities and playing an important and old-fashioned role in communications by being a gathering place and sending out information in the first few days when telephone, television and Internet services were knocked out.
After passing eastwardly and destructively through Westfield, West Springfield, Agawam, Springfield, Wilbraham and Monson, the stronger of the two tornadoes to hit Brimfield June 1 swept into town through through the state forest at about 5 p.m., destroying three of seven buildings at a state Department of Conservation and Recreation headquarters.
The storm caused what town officials estimate to be more than $14 million worth of damage to homes on the streets south of Route 20, including Sutcliffe, Dean Pond, Dearth Hill, Hollow, Haynes Hill, Wales, Paige Hill, Holland, and East Brimfield-Holland roads.
It destroyed all but eight of the roughly 90 trailers at Quinebaug Cove Campsite on East Brimfield-Holland Road.
None of the roughly 25 people at Quinebaug were hurt.
At the Village Green Family Campground just to the west, camper Virginia Darlow, 52, of Palmer, was killed in her trailer when the twister flipped it in the air and dumped it upside down.
A path of destruction was carved through the heart of Brimfield State Forest, pictured here the day after the June 1 tornado that ripped through the rural eastern Hampden County town.Her boyfriend, Richard Reim, 51, suffered back and neck injuries in the incident.Village Green owner Lester Twarowski said 95 of 97 trailers at his park were destroyed.
Most were empty at the time, and Twarowki was thankful that the storm did not hit during the crowded Memorial Day weekend.
The first tornado, rated EF3 by the National Weather Service, was on the ground moving eastward across the entire width of Brimfield and then went on to Sturbridge, Southbridge and Charlton before lifting off.
A smaller tornado, rated EF1, touched down in the northern part of Brimfield about a mile west of Route 19 a little before 7 p.m. and was on the ground for 1.3 miles before lifting off about one-third of a mile east of Route 19, a little south of Warren.
All of Brimifield’s roads south of Route 20 were blocked by fallen trees from the first storm, and Fire Chief Stephen Denning said it took him hours of cirling to get to the Fire Station on Wales Road, just south of the center of town.
Because all neighboring community fire departments were already responding to the needs just west of town, Denning said he had to call for help from the eastern part of the state.
“We had people from Boston and Cape Cod in Brimfield for search and rescue,” Denning said.
State highway trucks also arrived and started clearing roads for emergency work, pushing tree trunks with snowplows.
Fire Lts. Don Contois and Jim Donovan were among the search and rescue workers who hiked into the devastated areas of town, helping people get from their destroyed homes to shelter.
“It took 45 minutes to go a quarter of a mile, trying to avoid live wires,” Donovan said. “It wasn’t like a tree was down. Every tree was down.”
The sun shines through what's left of JoAnn Kass' garage. Firefighter Peter Fabrycki worked his way around Village Green Family Campground, shouting at trailers to see if anyone would call back. With other responders he helped move the injured to ambulances and treatment.
Twarowski said he and others at the campground had to lift one patient out with a human chain, and a door blown off a trailer was used to carry another.
Much of Hollow Brook Farm on Hollow Road was wiped out and on Holland Road, the entire business of One Stop Towing was destroyed, including dozens of antique cars kept there.
Recovery efforts started within hours, crews started clearing roads, replaced many power lines and started restoring electric and telephone service, and people started going to First Congregational Church for help and to help.
“We began feeding work crews, both professional and volunteers, and delivering meals to homeowners,” Lynch said.
A refrigerator truck was loaned for the effort and parked on the church front lawn and people a constant movement of working volunteers went to work day after day addressing community needs.
Hitchcock Academy took in donations of clothing and began distributing garments to people whose homes went down with their belongings, and donations started pouring in to the town’s usually dormant Harding Fund, established long ago to help Brimfield residents in emergencies.
Gov. Deval L. Patrick, U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, and other officials toured the damage, met with newly homeless residents and started the process aimed at bringing federal money to help in the recovery.
Tornado aftermath in Brimfield: This photo shows town resident Vincent Travi trying to salvage items the day after a June 1 tornado destroyed his home on Hollow Road. His wife Cindy was home when the storm hit , but she managed to survive in the basement by holding onto part of the concrete foundation. A townwide discussion of the disaster and what steps to take next was held June 11 on the Town Common to provide updates and advice, and the town began to put out information on its website, www.brimfieldma.org and on the local public access television channel and its website, www.brimfield.tv.
A company was hired the week of June 6 to begin removing fallen trees from the road sides, and a schedule of temporary road closings in connection with this work has been published on these websites along with other information.
“We have faith in each other. We have faith in the community. It is powerfully good,” Lynch said.
The church’s meals programs will taper off as the need decreases but the volunteers are ready and committed to meet new needs as they arise, he said.
“It will shift to a rebuilding phase in the next few weeks,” Lynch said, adding with enthusiasm, “I talked with someone today who has a new roof already.”
There was very little damage at the fields along Route 20 where the Brimfield Antiques Shows are held three times a year and the July 12-17 and Sept. 6-11 shows are scheduled to go on.
In Sturbridge, Southbridge and Charlton to the east there were many trees blown down across roads in the storm and there was substantial damage to homes in Sturbridge and Southbridge.
Neal, whose home city of Springfield was heavily damaged in the storm, said these three Worcester County towns and have been included in damage assessments passed on to federal authorities along with the information from Hampden County communities.
Neal and said he saw 15 of 17 airplanes at Southbridge Municipal Airport flipped upside down and ruined and two hangars destroyed. There was also substantial damage at the 74-room Days Inn in Sturbridge, where some buildings were destroyed.