Trio of Mass. tornadoes wrecked some 200 buildings

June 02, 2011|By Travis Andersen, Eric Moskowitz, John R. Ellement, and Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

Deborah Alexander and her son, Eugene Alexander Malone, went into the now-open… (Suzanne Kreiter/Globe…)

Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff

Deborah Alexander and her son, Eugene Alexander Malone, went into the now-open air bedroom of her Springfield home to collect her Bible and photo albums. She sheltered downstairs Wednesday afternoon as her upstairs walls and roof were ripped off by the wind.

By Travis Andersen, Eric Moskowitz, John R. Ellement, and Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

At least 200 buildings were destroyed by tornadoes as they carved their deadly paths through Central and Western Massachusetts on Wednesday, hitting particularly hard in a group of eight or nine communities that included the city of Springfield, Governor Deval Patrick said this afternoon.

Patrick, who said the National Weather Service had confirmed that at least three tornadoes had touched down, said 35 buildings were destroyed in Springfield, 88 in West Springfield, and "77 and counting" in Monson. The official death toll remains at four and no one is unaccounted-for, he said.

He said 290 people were still in shelters, about half the number from Wednesday, and 40,000 to 41,000 homes and businesses were without power.

Meanwhile, the grim details -- and a story of a heroic mother saving her child -- began to emerge about the people who were killed in the storms.

Officials in West Springfield said Angelica Guerrero, 39, had been killed when she threw her teenage daughter in the bathtub and jumped on top of her, saving her as the house collapsed around them.

Sergey Livchin, 23, was also killed in West Springfield when a tree fell and crushed his 2005 Kia during the storm. In Brimfield, officials said a woman was killed when she became trapped under a mobile home. Springfield police said the fourth person was an elderly man from their community who had suffered an unrelated heart attack before the storm, but a state spokesman said this evening that officials were still counting that death as part of the official toll.

Patrick spoke at the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency bunker in Framingham after spending the day with other top state elected officials touring the stricken areas.

“I don’t think there’s any question that we’re in the tens of millions” in damage, said US Senator John F. Kerry, who joined Patrick and US Senator Scott Brown this morning at a news conference across the street from the First Church of Monson, which had its steeple blown off by violent winds.

He said the state's congressional delegation would push for federal funding to assist area residents.

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