Four people are dead and dozens are injured after two confirmed tornados inMassachusetts. The twisters tore through the western part of the state during rush hour, leaving thousands without power.
People there worked through the night trying to clear piles of debris from their homes. The people are still trying to get over the shock after a deadly string of tornadoes tore through the state Wednesday.
"This is probably a once in a hundred years or maybe more weather event," said Senator John Kerry (D-Massachusetts).
Video captured the fury of one funnel cloud swirling over the Connecticut Bridge. It came out of nowhere sucking up debris and dumping it onto nearby neighborhoods. In Springfield, located 90 miles from Boston, the twister ripped trees from the ground and leveled entire buildings.
Rescue crews pulled this man from the rubble of his home, his wife carried out on a stretcher. The state'sgovernor has declared a state of emergency and 1,000 National Guard troops will be on hand today. Tornadoes in this part of the country are not unheard of but they are extremely rare.
"Snow storms and ice storms are what we deal with more regularly but we’ve seen the power of this event and it's something we don't want to see very often," said MEMA Public Information Officer Peter Judge.
For many, the destruction was an eerie taste of what tornado victims in Alabama and Missouri have experienced.
'It's just kind of reminded me of Joplin really, I mean, I just never seen anything like it," said Holyoke Fire Departmentfirefighter Chuck Lavelle.
Utility crews are now scrambling to restore power to tens of thousands while authorities work to fully assess the damage. There hasn't been a tornado in Massachusetts since 2008 and the last time a deadly twister hit the state was more than a decade ago, when three people were killed.
People there worked through the night trying to clear piles of debris from their homes. The people are still trying to get over the shock after a deadly string of tornadoes tore through the state Wednesday.
"This is probably a once in a hundred years or maybe more weather event," said Senator John Kerry (D-Massachusetts).
Video captured the fury of one funnel cloud swirling over the Connecticut Bridge. It came out of nowhere sucking up debris and dumping it onto nearby neighborhoods. In Springfield, located 90 miles from Boston, the twister ripped trees from the ground and leveled entire buildings.
Rescue crews pulled this man from the rubble of his home, his wife carried out on a stretcher. The state'sgovernor has declared a state of emergency and 1,000 National Guard troops will be on hand today. Tornadoes in this part of the country are not unheard of but they are extremely rare.
"Snow storms and ice storms are what we deal with more regularly but we’ve seen the power of this event and it's something we don't want to see very often," said MEMA Public Information Officer Peter Judge.
'It's just kind of reminded me of Joplin really, I mean, I just never seen anything like it," said Holyoke Fire Departmentfirefighter Chuck Lavelle.
Utility crews are now scrambling to restore power to tens of thousands while authorities work to fully assess the damage. There hasn't been a tornado in Massachusetts since 2008 and the last time a deadly twister hit the state was more than a decade ago, when three people were killed.
