1 year later, Cape recalls impact of 3 tornadoes
The rare weather event -- there had been only three tornadoes recorded on the Cape before
Two touched down in
"I remember how dark it got in the office," said
O'Brien, who had been monitoring the progress of the severe weather from the basement, received a call from
Within minutes after the tornadoes passed, the county's Multi-Agency Coordination Center was up and running. In less than one hour, county officials were working with the
"I never thought in a million years that we would be responding to a tornado, let alone three on the same day, on
O'Brien praised the coordinated effort of affected towns, state government and Eversource to initiate the recovery process.
"I was impressed how quick power was restored and tree-cutting and clearing happened," he said. "It was dangerous for a while, so power couldn't come back right away.
"For a bad situation, it was a great response, and thank God we didn't lose anybody," O'Brien added.
Perhaps the most memorable image that emerged from the tornadoes was the roof blown off the
The 67-room inn has yet to recover, according to owner
Khan says an issue with an insurance claim has stalled work on completion of the roof replacement, although the inn's two other buildings are operational this summer.
"They have been jerking us around for almost a year," he said of the insurance dispute that has taken the building's 19 units out of commission for the season. "I never dealt with an insurance company in my life. It's been a nightmare. I wish I had this building open to help make the mortgage payments. We're only open in the summer."
Many businesses took a hit at the time, losing power in the middle of the high season. The state offered an emergency loan fund to help small businesses and later allocated
The Cape failed to get federal disaster funding, though. Municipalities and other public agencies needed to incur
At least 150 hardwood trees in town were snapped or uprooted, many coming down into roads and onto houses and cars. Wind gusts reached 110 mph.
When the tornadoes hit,
Hooper said he will never do that again.
Nearly everyone lost power across town, and some pockets of the community saw severe damage.
Hooper was driving when the tornadoes hit, and trees and poles started to come down all around him.
"I actually feared for my life," he said. "I will adhere to those warnings in the future."
Roads were blocked all over town, and trips that normally took five minutes could take up to 90.
In the aftermath, Gov.
Crews from as close as
That was a godsend, Hooper said.
"If this was left up to the town of
One of the best measures of the havoc caused by the storm was the amount of brush that ended up at the town dump. The transfer station was running out of room because of how much debris people were bringing.
"Normally, we gather about 10,000 yards of brush annually," Hooper said. "In two weeks, it gathered 50,000 yards of brush."
It's been a roller coaster of a year since, but the term "unprecedented" still comes to mind, despite how often it's been used to describe the pandemic.
"I know that term gets thrown around," Hooper said, "but it was the worst natural disaster the town of
"We had a supercell thunderstorm with rotation that got going south of
Severe weather is much more common in the central and western parts of the state, according to Frank, who added that thunderstorms feed off heat and moisture, and it's usually warmer inland as opposed to nearer the ocean. But as the summer season progresses, the ocean gets increasingly warmer and there is less of a deterrent for the storms.
"If this situation happened two months earlier, it wouldn't have been anything," Frank said.
While
"It will lead to somewhat more of a risk for thunderstorms to hold together," he said.
Frank attributes early warning radar technology and wireless emergency alerts on cellphones as playing a significant role in quickly identifying the tornado formation and saving lives last summer.
"Even two minutes of lead time can be enough to get someone from outside to inside," he said.
State Sen.
"Electricity was brought back with a speed I've never seen before," he said. "In hindsight, the summer we're in right now is much more difficult."
Staff writer
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