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OUR NEXT BIG STORY --
A RARE FEBRUARY
TORNADO TOUCHES
DOWN IN
MASSACHUSETTS...
LEAVING BEHIND A PATH
OF DESTRUCTION.
(HE)
THE PINPOINT
NEWSTRACKER SHOWS
YOU WHERE IT HAPPENED
SATURDAY NIGHT...
IN CONWAY,
MASSACHUSETTS...
TONIGHT,
METEOROLOGIST TJ DEL
SANTO AND SKY DRONE 12
ARE GIVING US AN
EXTRAORDINARY VIEW OF
THE DAMAGE.
THE VIEW FROM SKY DRONE 12,
SHOWS THE ENOURMITY OF
THE DAMAGE HERE IN
WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS.
THIS IS WHAT'S LEFT OF AN
ANTIQUES BARN IN THE TINY
COMMUNITY KNOWN AS
PUMPKIN HOLLOW. THAT WAS
SOMEONE'S LIVELIHOOD.
FOLKS IN THE MIDWEST AND
ALABAMA TELL US IT SOUNDS
LIKE A FREIGHT TRAIN...IT
SURELY DOES.
STEVEN SCHNEIDER WAS JUST
FINISHING DINNER WHEN THE
TORNADO BLEW THROUGH AND
BADLY DAMAGED BOTH OF HIS
HOMES HERE.
WINDOWS BROKEN, 4 OR 5 OF
THOSE BROKEN...PORCH WAS
HIT PRETTY BADLY...LOT OF
CLEAN UP.
SCHNEIDER SAID IT DIDN'T LAST
MORE THAN 2 OR 3 MINUTES.
THIS FIRST FEBRUARY
TORNADO ON RECORD FOR
MASSACHUSETTS WAS ON THE
GROUND FOR 5MILES AND
GREW TO BE AS LARGE AS 2
FOOTBALL FIELDS. THIS IS NOT
A HEAVILY POPULATED AREA,
BUT THE HOMES IN THE
TWISTER'S PATH WERE BADLY
DAMAGED.
STEVE THOMAS WAS CHOKING
BACK TEARS WHEN RECALLING
THE TORNADO AND HOW IT
TORE THE FRONT OF HIS
HOUSE OFF, REVEALING A
BATHROOM, LIVING ROOM AND
BEDROOM. THE BACK OF HIS
HOUSE WAS UNTOUCHED.
YEAH...HAVING A DINNER PARTY
IN THE BACK OF THE HOUSE...IN
THE TWO PARTS OF THE
HOUSE...THE TIMBER FRAME
PART WASN'T SCRATCHED.
MIRACULOUSLY, NO ONE WAS
INJURED.
CONWAY POLICE CHIEF KEN
OUIMETTE SAID AN ICE STORM
IN 2008 WAS DEVASTATING...BUT
NOT THIS BAD.
AS FAR AS DAMAGE TO
PEOPLES PERSONAL
PROPERTY, THIS IS BY FAR THE
WORST WE'VE EVER SEEN
HERE.
THE SUN'S OUT, REBUILD AND
GET ON WITH OUR LIVES.
And meteorologist tj del santo
with
me now. what was it like being
there in person to see the
damage?
I've been to a few scenes where
tornados have come on through,
but
nothing like the devastation
that i
saw today. i went to revere to
see
that tornado, a lot of damage
there
in revere, just north of boston,
but
this one, whole homes were just
completely destroyed. front of
a
house ripped right off, it
looked like
a doll house, you'd play with
it, a
doll move it from room to room,
that
was what the scene was like,
trees
on top of houses. i spoke to
one
gentleman, it was extremely
emotional, he couldn't even talk
to
us, he was just so heartbroken,
but
he was more glad that his family
was in the back of that house,
where
the front was just literally
ripped off.
he was actually having a dinner
party and everybody was in the
right
part of that house for that
moment.
That's incredible because there
were no reported injuries?
Not one single injury from the
tornado, there was a woman who
had some minor cuts and scrapes,
from a tree away from the
tornado,
that fell onto her car, but
nothing
from the tornado itself.
I was actually working in
western
mass back in june 2011 when the
tornado came through. it didn't
hit
this part of the state. back
then it's
june, not necessarily february.
it's
still rare for a tornado in
western
mass, but this is extremely
rare?
It's february, this is the first
february
tornado on record for
massachusetts. they've had
three
tornados during winter. the
other
two were in march, i think in
1966
and way back in 1774, those are
the
only tornados on record for
winter
time in massachusetts.
And of course there were several
deaths in that june tornado, so
glad
to hear there were no deaths and
no
And of course there were several
deaths in that june tornado, so
glad
to hear there were no deaths and
no
injuries in this one.
It wasn't a wide path, it was
about
200 yards, which is actually
fairly
wide, but it's kind of a
sparcely
populated area, so there's the
good
news there, no deaths, no
serious
injuries at all out there in
western
mass.
Just a lot of clean up ahead?
yes
lots of cleanup.
meteorologist tj del santo,
thank you
so much for joining us.