US towns digging out from widespread damage caused by rare tornadoes that killed 4

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Residents of 18 small communities in central and western Massachusetts were left to deal with widespread damage Thursday, a day after at least two late-afternoon tornadoes shocked emergency officials and residents more accustomed to dealing with snow and bone-chilling cold than funnel clouds spawned by spring storms.

The storms killed at least four people and injured about 200.

Gov. Deval Patrick said on ABC television on Thursday that considering how quickly the tornadoes formed, he feels fortunate there weren’t more fatalities.

“When I spoke with the mayor of Springfield yesterday, he told me they had about ten minutes’ warning,” Patrick said. “When you consider how quickly the tornadoes developed and then touched down, the fact that there wasn’t even greater damage and loss of life is a remarkable thing.”

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The state normally averages about two tornadoes per year, with the last lethal twister in 1995.

The storm pulverized or sheared off the tops of roofs on Main Street in Springfield, a city of more than 150,000 west of Boston. A mounted video camera captured dramatic footage of a debris-filled funnel as it swept into downtown from the west, then swirling across the Connecticut River.

The governor declared a state of emergency and called up 1,000 National Guardsmen after the storms, which brought scenes of devastation more familiar in the South and Midwest to a part of the country where such violent weather isn’t a way of life.

Patrick said the death toll was preliminary and police and firefighters were going door to door in Springfield to assure that no one was trapped in damaged buildings.

Meanwhile, in Missouri, officials updated the death toll from the major tornado that hit Joplin on May 22 to 138 people. The state Department of Public Safety said the toll rose after four people died in hospitals of injuries suffered in deadliest single U.S. tornado since 1950. More than 8,000 homes and apartments, and more than 500 commercial properties, were damaged or destroyed when the twister ripped through the southwest Missouri town.