Webster residents raise alarm after quick twister
Fire chief’s advice: Pay attention to emergency alerts
The Bay State does not have a siren system to warn residents of the imminent threat of tornadoes, but with three confirmed strikes since July 26, Kurt Schwartz, director of the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, said it may be worth considering.
“Two or three tornadoes occur here in a typical summer. We’ve had three in 10 days,” Schwartz said yesterday. “It’s a discussion that may end up taking place, but it’s not something that’s easy to implement. That’s a multimillion dollar investment.”
The Herald yesterday quoted a witness that no warning was given for the EF1 twister that pummeled downtown Webster just before 10 a.m. Saturday. But authorities said social media blasts by the National Weather Service, the Massachusetts Alerts app, radio, television and other venues preceded the tornado by about 10 minutes.
“The National Weather Service did issue a severe thunderstorm warning and then a tornado warning for that area,” Schwartz said. “The reality with tornadoes is they can occur very quickly — sometimes with very little notice. We have to do much more public education and keep promoting preparedness. The reality is most people in this state have never experienced a tornado.”
Webster fire Chief Brian Hickey said, “I got the warning from my phone from the National Weather Service. It was a solid 10, 15 minutes beforehand. Everybody who has a cellphone got the warning, I’m sure.”
Which is why Hickey was surprised to see people still milling about town in the minutes after the alerts went out.
“The early warning systems work, but people need to pay attention to them,” he said. “People were outside. They didn’t have any idea how dangerous the situation was. When they say to head to cover, head to cover.”
Though tornadoes sometimes announce themselves with a thunderous noise like an approaching freight train, Hickey said, “I never heard a thing. We were very, very fortunate.”
Some said they missed the notices or got them late. Tara Butler, 32, said she was playing with her 9monthold son in their Webster home when she “heard the wind pick up and the power went out. I heard hail, then I heard a ridiculously scary sound outside and the wind picked up so I grabbed Cillian and ran in the basement. Then our phones went off to seek shelter. That was 10 seconds into when this was happening. It probably lasted 20 seconds altogether. It wasn’t until we were in the basement that our phones alerted us.”
But Dennis Luukko, president of the Dudley Webster Oxford Chamber of Commerce, said he was waiting on customers at Aubuchon Hardware when everyone’s phones started blowing up in the store with tornado alerts.
“Everything seemed to go so fast,” Luukko said. “It’s good we got those warnings. The wind was blowing so hard it was almost like a blizzard. It was raining so hard you could barely see in front of you. It was quite the thing.”
The National Weather Service is expected to release more detailed information today but initially reported the tornado touched down in Dudley at 9:55 a.m. Saturday and was on the ground for approximately 5 minutes. There was one reported injury.