The Church is usable despite some damage in the tornado, and its banquet hall, The Cedars, is also ready for use.
Residents of East Forest Park sift through storm debris on Pennsylvania Avenue the day after the June 1 tornado hit Springfield.SPRINGFIELD – When the main roads through East Forest Park were closed in the hours after a tornado swept through the neighborhood June 1 it did not stop the parish pasta dinner from being served, but it did change who got to eat.
Trees knocked across major roads about 4:30 p.m. that day kept away most of the people who had been planning to attend the meal at 5 p.m., but many motorists driving down Island Pond Road could not continue their trip because of the downed trees, so they pulled into the only available place to get off the road, St. Anthony’s parking lot.
“People going home couldn’t go any further,’’ said Norman Hannoush, financial administrator of the church. “We ended up being a shelter by default.’’
The meal had already been cooked and was ready to serve, so, without lights or the normal parish crowd, the volunteers served meals in St. Anthony’s banquet hall, The Cedars, to about 100 stranded people, many of whom stayed until 9 p.m.
And when the volunteers learned that there were 40 school children stranded at Bethany Lutheran Church a few hundred yards away, they packed up meals and brought them to the children as well.
Hannuosh said the church had to cancel its Sunday services for the first time ever because of some damage and having access roads still blocked on June 5, but the church is usable again, the banquet hall is in fine shape and both are ready for a scheduled celebration on Sunday.
The Feast of St. Anthony falls on June 13 and the parish will have its celebration of the feast at 10:30 a.m. Sunday with a pot luck meal in the hall afterwards.
Hannoush said the church community is grateful that the damage to its property was so limited.
Two glass sections of the dome at the top of the church were blown to pieces in the storm and some trees came down in the parking lot area, but the level of damage was low in a neighborhood where houses were destroyed and enough trees were knocked down to completely revise the landscape.
With so many trees wiped out for miles in the tornado, it is important to the parish that a Lebanon cedar tree, brought over from Lebanon and planted in front of the church when it was built in 1969 is still standing tall and not damaged.
“Look at it, still standing, even though the tornado came right by and took the larger trees,’’ said Sal LaBella, a member of the parish stewardship committee.
Hannoush said events that were scheduled at the Cedars will go on as planned and the hall is still available for rent for weddings and other functions.
He said the parish will also make the hall available for groups that want to hold fund-raising functions to help the neighborhood. They may call (413) 737-7896 with inquiries.
“We have the facilities to do something for the community,’’ Hannoush said.
When he looks out at the destruction on the landscape, Hannoush says he sees a future of rebuilding in the East Forest Park neighborhood that will make it better than before.
“We will be here for another 200 years,’’ Hannoush said.
LaBella said there is a cohesion in the neighborhood that will withstand the destruction, including the heavy damage at nearby Cathedral High School.