Severe storms barreled through Western Massachusetts on Wednesday.
Law enforcement reports that a tornado touched down in Westfield, and later moved on to Springfield a little after 4 PM (pictured here). Damage was reported, including partial building collapses and roof damage. Some people were trapped in those buildings.
The National Weather Service also reported that the tornado touched down in Brimfield, Wilbraham, and Monson. In Sturbridge State Police say the tornado blew cars off of I-84, and knocked signs down.
MEMA has confirmed 4 storm related deaths, including one death in West Springfield. As of Wednesday night, rescuers were still going through several buildings from Springfield to Monson to Agawam looking for injured people. The deaths make today’s tornadoes the first deadly tornadoes to hit Massachusetts since 1995, and the deadliest since 1973.
Debris from the tornadoes fell up to 50 miles away in Upton and Framingham (damaged church in Monson pictured at right, courtesy of Chris McCray).
A second tornado struck Westfield and Springfield around 6 PM, causing more damage.
In the wake of the tornadoes, which impacted 19 Bay State communities, the Governor declared a State of Emergency and activated the National Guard. The intensity of the storms (as rated on the EF scale), will not be determined until National Weather Service officials can assess the damage thoroughly.
> Watch HinghamWeather.com’s LIVE Coverage Provided during the Tornadoes
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Yesterday’s unusual tornado coverage gave me a chance to scrutinize the local TV meteorologists on a breaking weather occurance, other than a snowstorm.
I’d have to say it was a tie for first place between WHDH and WCVB. Both stations had several meteorologists on hand to assist with computer graphics and updates as they occurred.
I felt bad for Kevin Lemanowitz at WFXT who although appearing calm during coverage, had to do it all. Couldn’t Cindy Fitzgibbins or A.J. Burnett have come in to assist Kevin with this unusual weather event ?
Over at WBZ ,Todd Gunter seemed a bit overwhelmed. Again, similar to the goings on at WFXT, it didn’t appear that Todd had any assistance from Barry Burbank or Melissa Mack with graphics in the weather center.
It was IMHO, a bad decision for both those stations not to call extra meteorologists in, as these two stations are usually running their full complement of mets during snowstorm coverage. Running tornado coverage with only one meterologist looked very unprofessional.