Article by: RUSSELL CONTRERAS, DAVID COLLINS and STEPHEN SINGER , Associated PressMONSON, Mass. - The sight of flattened homes, peeled-off roofs and the toppled steeple of a 140-year-old church stunned New Englanders after deadly tornadoes swept through Massachusetts, striking an area of the country that rarely sees such severe twisters.
The storms, which came with fair warning but still shocked with their intensity, killed at least three people, injured about 200 and wreaked damage in a string of 18 cities and villages across central and western Massachusetts.
Tornadoes are not unheard of in New England — the downtown of Connecticut's largest city was devastated by one last June — so many people heeded warnings. That didn't guarantee their survival; among the dead was a mother who shielded her teenage daughter as they huddled in a bathtub.
But in many cases, doing the right thing — quickly — helped save lives.
Karen Irla, 50, was leaving Adams Hometown Market in the picturesque village of Monson when she heard children on their bicycles yelling, "Look at that tornado!"
Inside the market, produce manager Frank Calabrese made a quick decision that helped keep customers and employees from coming to harm.
In a move recalling a famous video from the recent deadly tornado in Missouri that documented shoppers' terrifying moments inside a convenience store cooler, Calabrese herded them into a walk-in freezer, where six to eight endless minutes passed while the building shook and windows shattered.
"What else are were going to do?" he said. "We sat inside and waited it out." No one in the store suffered a scratch.
The storms hit as many people headed home from work Wednesday, paralyzing motorists who could see the twister coming at them.
Michael Valentin, 29, said he was eating at a soup kitchen near downtown when he started hearing thunder and went outside.
"All this was chaos," he said. "It was like a mad wind twisting. It was destroying everything. Cars were being smashed against walls. Pieces of wood and trees were flying in the air."
Debbie Perkins, 30, was filling up a small backyard swimming pool for some children when they spotted the funnel. They ran into the home and huddled in the basement.
"The kids, they were all screaming and crying," Perkins said. Unlike many of her neighbors, she escaped without damage to her home.
The Hampden County district attorney, Mark Mastroianni, said he barely escaped injury himself when plate glass windows shattered and blew into his office and a conference room.
"People started to scream, `Get away from the windows,' and as I was just turning to run, the glass window just came flying in," he said.
The story was repeated in town after town around Springfield. Some of the most severe damage was in Monson, about 15 miles away, where homes were leveled and a historic church was badly damaged.
"This isn't supposed to happen here," Sen. John Kerry said after touring the damage in Monson, usually a quiet mountain hamlet about 90 miles west of Boston.
The toppled steeple of the First Church of Monson — founded in 1762 and rebuilt in 1873 — was a symbol of the heartbreak many residents were feeling. But townspeople were relieved that no one in the town of fewer than 10,000 was killed — and were determined to rebuild.
Patrick said he was moved by gestures of goodwill.
He also addressed the death of the West Springfield woman who died while saving her daughter's life by covering her in the bathtub.
"I'm a dad, and I understand a mom or dad would do anything to save their child," Patrick said.
Authorities initially believed at least four people died but later determined that a heart attack death in Springfield was likely unrelated to the storms. A man died when a tree struck a van in West Springfield, and another person died in Brimfield, though authorities have not released details.
The governor, who declared a state of emergency allowing officials to sidestep usual regulations to provide quick relief, pledged that the state would throw all its resources behind recovery and that federal disaster assistance would be sought."For those who are feeling, quite understandably, that they can't imagine what a better tomorrow would look like, I want to assure that we are working to get to that better tomorrow," he said.
Massachusetts public health officials said about 200 people sought treatment for storm related-injuries.
Dr. Reginald Alouidor, a surgeon heading the trauma teams at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, said the injured at his hospital ranged in age from 2 to their mid-60s, with many suffering broken bones or other injuries from wind-driven debris.
Seven remained at the hospital Thursday, including a woman whose liver was lacerated when a building collapsed on her.
Tens of thousands remained without power in the region.
Given the extent of damage, Patrick, who joined Kerry and Sen. Scott Brown for an aerial tour of the devastation, said it was remarkable there weren't more deaths.
That may explain why the twisters caught people by surprise, said Stephen Frasier, a University of Massachusetts professor who has chased tornadoes across the Great Plains.
"Two things happened: This was bigger than the average tornado that hits Massachusetts that usually just knocks over a tree or something, and of course, it hit a populated area," Frasier said.
Tornado watches and warnings had been posted Wednesday by the National Weather Service and were broadcast by radio and TV stations, "but people just don't react to it here the way they do in other regions of the country," he said.
Most Massachusetts communities also don't have warning sirens like in the South and Plains, where people know exactly what they mean and are trained in grade school on how to react. Where sirens do exist, he said, New Englanders often treat them with curiosity rather than as a nudge to seek shelter.
On June 9, 1953, a monster tornado sliced through Worcester and other central Massachusetts communities, killing 94 people and making it one of the deadliest single tornadoes in U.S. history.
The American Red Cross of Massachusetts Bay is accepting donations of any size from people who want to help the residents of those communities hammered by the tornadoes in Central and Western Massachusetts on Wednesday.
People can donate online at http://redcross.org or by phone: 1-800-RED-CROSS. Those who wish to donate can also text "REDCROSS" to 90999 to send $10 to the organization. The charge will appears on the user's celphone bill.
Collins reported from West Springfield and Singer from Brimfield. Contributing were Associated Press writers Stephanie Reitz in Hartford, Conn.; and Denise Lavoie, Mark Pratt, Bob Salsberg, Sylvia Wingfield and Rodrique Ngowi in Boston.
