Small tornado brings down trees, rains flood streets
Tornado spotted on Doppler radar
Cars crushed by trees and branches pushed into homes were the result of a small tornado in Worcester Sunday night, the National Weather Service said.
City officials said public schools would be in session Tuesday as scheduled.
The tornado, an EF0, touched down between 8:10 and 8:14 p.m., with winds of 85 mph in the Grafton and Vernon Hill neighborhoods.
"Within a matter of seconds, the windows were shaking just so hard and rattling," said resident Jeff Westerlind.
Track storms with interactive radar.
Trained storm spotters reported heavy tree damage in parts of Worcester and wide areas of debris. The EF0 tornado is the least damaging on the scale that measures storms.
"The noise was unreal. It really was like a freight train and it just kept getting louder and louder and louder," one resident said.
On Pilgrim Avenue, a tree was pushed into a house, while cars were crushed by falling limbs. The tornado was one-tenth of a mile wide and had a path of 1.7 miles, the weather service said.
On Standish Street in Worcester, a NewsCenter 5 viewer reported that her neighbor's fence was down and a screen was ripped off the window in her bedroom.
A small number of homes lost power as lines came down.
Brimfield reported almost two inches of rain in 40 minutes.
Park Avenue was reported to be flooded in Worcester and impassable Sunday night, while flooding closed three lanes on Route 128 in the Burlington area.