REVERE, Mass. — There were a dozen phone trucks with flashing lights going up and down Broadway repairing fallen lines after a twister left this section of the city looking like the aftermath of an air strike from a B1 bomber.
The loud whining of industrial woodchippers could be heard throughout neighborhoods that bore the brunt of an EF2 twister with a maximum wind speed of 120 miles per hour. People were in their yards gathering up piles of debris that landed from blocks away.
An employee, working feverishly from atop a cherry picker, apologized to my sister for taking so long to fix the phone line to my boyhood home in Revere on Thursday.
My son ran into the hallway in Maine on Monday morning and told me a two-mile long twister rolled through Broadway and tore up the center of my hometown. Facebook went berserk and relatives and friends began calling us in Maine. We watched the coverage on the computer. Revere was a mess with fallen trees, blown-out windows and debris littering the landscape.
A frigging twister? In Revere? Are you kidding?
This seaside community has never experienced a twister in my lifetime. I have always believed New England has been surrounded by an invisible force field that protected us from these devastating whirlwinds. I thought twisters only wreaked havoc in the Midwest, and as far as I am concerned, these deadly concoctions of nature can stay in the Midwest.
Revere has been ravaged by blizzards and menacing hurricanes, but this community of 53,000 residents has never stared down a twister without any warning. The twister was only on the ground for five minutes, and in those brief moments, the tornado flipped cars like a short-order cook tosses burgers. Some homes were rendered uninhabitable and a few businesses were nearly leveled.
My nephew took a peek out from the picture window of my father's home and saw trees snapping when a frightening funnel cloud became visible. He shouted to his mother to get downstairs and the pair huddled in the dark basement, hoping the house would not shake loose from its foundation. They have been caring for our dad, who was resting at a rehabilitation facility in nearby Melrose, Mass. I was proud of my courageous nephew who thought of his mother first and took shelter in the basement. For a brief moment, they felt like Dorothy and Tonto.
If you can read a map, Revere is next to Boston. But most of the city was unscathed due to the narrow path of the storm. It began in Chelsea and whipped down Revere's main street and veered toward my old neighborhood where McClure, School, Belgrade and True streets were hit hard. My dad's roof and siding took a beating and my uncle's shed was ripped to pieces.
I believe you can chalk up this rare instance to global warming caused by the most destructive force on the planet — man. There are too many of us and our appetite for overdeveloping the earth and wasting finite resources has taken a harsh toll on a planet soiled my careless human beings.
My other sister was not home, but her husband was pushed back when he tried to open the door to their home. Both sisters and their children were not injured and can now tell their grandchildren a tale of how they survived a tornado.
Nobody was killed or severely injured in the tornado that ambushed a city on a quiet Monday morning. Homes can be restored or replaced, but people are lost forever in these dangerous storms.
Kudos to Revere residents for making a quick recovery.
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