Powerful storms hit shell-shocked region

The fast-moving storms, which reportedly spawned several funnel clouds but apparently did not touch down as a tornado, uprooted trees, flooded streets, and downed power lines, leaving more than 20,000 people without electricity, authorities said.

“We thought a tornado had touched down near us,’’ said Alexa Anselmo, a store manager at Chmura’s Bakery in the Indian Orchard neighborhood. “It was that loud.’’

Sweeping east through the Springfield area, the storms cut a similar path to the June 1 tornadoes, which killed three people and caused at least $175 million in damage. For residents of the affected towns, many of whom lost their homes and their possessions to the tornadoes, yesterday’s storms brought back a rush of terrifying memories, and a disbelief that menacing weather had torn into their lives a second time.

“I can’t believe it hit again,’’ said Lauren MacLellan, as she toured the athletic fields at her high school in Wilbraham, where yesterday’s storm tossed the scoreboard 50 yards on the football field, tore away part of the school’s roof, and turned an abutting forest into sticks and stumps.

When MacLellan first heard the tornado warning yesterday, she thought it had to be a joke. Like many residents, she said it just didn’t seem possible that two devastating storms could strike within such a short amount of time. But this time, she wasn’t taking chances.

“The first time it happened, I thought there was no way a tornado would hit,’’ she said. “But this time we went to the basement of my house right away. All my friends went to their basements.’’

Towns throughout the region sustained damage from the storm, which reached Pittsfield around 3:30 p.m., then moved through the Springfield area between 4 and 5, before weakening as it moved east.

In Holyoke, where winds reached 70 miles per hour, a brick warehouse partially collapsed, and two boaters were rescued from the Connecticut River when their canoe capsized. They managed to cling to some rocks under a bridge, and a rescue boat pulled them from the water, uninjured.