‘Came out of nowhere’: NWS to survey damage from radar-confirmed tornado in Mass. town

HOLDEN, Mass. — The National Weather Service will survey a trail of destruction in a central Massachusetts town on Monday after a radar-confirmed tornado tore through the area over the weekend.

The Saturday storm, which brought intense rain and high winds, uprooted large trees and left streets and yards across Holden littered with branches.

South Road, Willow Brook Road, and Bailey Road took the brunt of the storm, with trees narrowly missing homes.

Peter Lukes, the Town Manager of Holden, said his neighborhood lost several large trees.

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“It was pretty amazing, I mean, we were in my home and we lost about five trees that were at least 60 feet tall, and so as it was happening, we were just kind of watching it and closed the drapes really quickly and went towards the basement,” Lukes recalled. “It went right through our backyard.”

Matthew Wait, who lives near Bailey Road, said the storm launched lawn chairs off his back deck.

“I looked out on the back deck, and we had four lawn chairs on there, and two of them are completely gone, and the other one is obliterated in our driveway,” Wait said.

Homeowner Phylis Lorrain said she took cover when she heard there was a tornado warning in the area.

“My phone went off for the alarm, so as I headed from my backroom to go to my cellar, I could see the branches falling right in front of my window,” Lorrain explained.

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While the NWS on Sunday said there was a radar-confirmed tornado in Holden, additional details need to be gathered on Monday, including path length, path width, and assigning an EF rating.

“We want to make sure we take the time to assess all of the storm damage to come up with the best conclusion possible,” the NWS said in a post on X.

On Monday, Janna Goodnow was left to clean up a mess of several uprooted trees scattered across her yard in Holden.

“A lot of clean up today, so we’ll do what we can,” explained Goodnow. “We’ll have to get crews out here to help us because some of this is just way too big.”

One tree narrowly missed Goodnow’s home, but took the foundation with it when it toppled over. Goodnow said the reported tornado on Saturday happened fast and sounded like a train whistling by.

“It came out of nowhere, lasted five minutes, we started running for the cellar, and then it was gone,” she said.

Berlin and other Worcester County communities were hit hard by the storm, experiencing similar destruction.

There were no reported injuries.

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