Worcester Tornado: 50 Years Later
Residents Recall One Of Nation's Deadliest Twisters
POSTED: 1:37 p.m. EDT June 4, 2003
UPDATED: 2:17 p.m. EDT June 4, 2003
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BOSTON -- Fifty years ago, a cone of black smoke touched down in Petersham, Mass., and set its sights on Worcester. Less than two hours later, dozens of people were dead and hundreds injured.
The F4 tornado hit on June 9, 1953 at about 3:30 p.m. The funnel quickly intensified, carving a 46-mile path of death and destruction as it moved through eight communities.
The twister tore through Barre, Rutland, Holden, Worcester, Shrewsbury, Westboro, Southboro and Fayville, Mass. It killed 94 people and left almost 1,300 people injured. The National Storm Prediction Center ranks it as the 20th deadliest tornado in the nation's history.
With wind speeds between 200 to 260 mph, the force of the tornado carried debris miles away and into the Atlantic Ocean. A music box and a 3-foot aluminum trap door were found about 35 miles away, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Though some memories fade, tornado victims and their families said that they can still recall that frightening spring day years ago.
Paula Moran was 11 years old when in 1953. She was on her bike on the way to a local store near Worcester when the tornado approached. Despite trying to pedal away from the storm, she was injured by a piece of a telephone pole that detached and flew through the air.
"It took my grandparents three days to find my mother in the hospital. The Worcester Telegram and Gazette published papers with pages and pages of names of hospitalized people and what hospital they were in. My mom's face was so swollen that she could not pronounce her name correctly and that contributed to them not being able to find her right away," Moran's daughter, Andrea Wood, said "They did find her mangled bicycle, which was scrunched up in a ball like a giant would crunch a can."
L. Sardo, formerly of Leominster, Mass., was 9-year-old when the tornado struck.
"Three-story tenement and single family homes were leveled with wood and shingles scattered. Trees were torn from their roots lying all over the place, clothes and household items were everywhere. Cars were turned over and crushed. It looked like a meteor struck the land," Sardo said.
NOAA officials estimate that the tornado caused about $52 million in damage, which would be about $349 million today.
Photographs of damage from the Worcester tornado of 1953, taken by Alfred K. Schroeder, courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society
The F4 tornado hit on June 9, 1953 at about 3:30 p.m. The funnel quickly intensified, carving a 46-mile path of death and destruction as it moved through eight communities.
The twister tore through Barre, Rutland, Holden, Worcester, Shrewsbury, Westboro, Southboro and Fayville, Mass. It killed 94 people and left almost 1,300 people injured. The National Storm Prediction Center ranks it as the 20th deadliest tornado in the nation's history.
With wind speeds between 200 to 260 mph, the force of the tornado carried debris miles away and into the Atlantic Ocean. A music box and a 3-foot aluminum trap door were found about 35 miles away, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Though some memories fade, tornado victims and their families said that they can still recall that frightening spring day years ago.
Paula Moran was 11 years old when in 1953. She was on her bike on the way to a local store near Worcester when the tornado approached. Despite trying to pedal away from the storm, she was injured by a piece of a telephone pole that detached and flew through the air.
"It took my grandparents three days to find my mother in the hospital. The Worcester Telegram and Gazette published papers with pages and pages of names of hospitalized people and what hospital they were in. My mom's face was so swollen that she could not pronounce her name correctly and that contributed to them not being able to find her right away," Moran's daughter, Andrea Wood, said "They did find her mangled bicycle, which was scrunched up in a ball like a giant would crunch a can."
L. Sardo, formerly of Leominster, Mass., was 9-year-old when the tornado struck.
"Three-story tenement and single family homes were leveled with wood and shingles scattered. Trees were torn from their roots lying all over the place, clothes and household items were everywhere. Cars were turned over and crushed. It looked like a meteor struck the land," Sardo said.
NOAA officials estimate that the tornado caused about $52 million in damage, which would be about $349 million today.
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