Tornado cuts path of debris in Revere

REVERE – By 1 p.m. Monday the National Weather Service confirmed what many residents in Revere already knew: A tornado whipped down Broadway leaving a swath of destruction more than three blocks wide.”It sounded like a train,” said Tapley Avenue resident Joann Worcester. “We lost power, so we didn’t even know it was coming.”Fire Chief Eugene Doherty said reports listed the tornado initially as an EF-2, which packs gusts of wind from 111-135 mph, but it was later downgraded to an EF-1, which carries winds gusts of 86 to 110 mph.Residents and business owners up and down Broadway echoed Worcester saying they simply had no warning that a tornado was coming.”All we got was a flash flood warning,” said Patrice Moccia, owner of Moccia Insurance Agency, 655 Broadway.Pat Moccia, Patrice’s mother, said they were in the office when they heard the storm coming.”The lights went out, and we hit the floor,” she said. “It was unbelievable.”Mayor Daniel Rizzo said it would have been nice to have more warning, but he was grateful for the fact that there were no fatalities and only a handful of minor injuries.According to Rizzo, there were between 64 and 67 buildings with significant damage, including City Hall and Revere High School, and 13 homes that have been declared uninhabitable. Roughly 2,800 residents were without power.Doherty said during a 5 p.m. press conference that city workers were still going door-to-door checking on residents and trying to assess the damage.Patrice Moccia pointed out shards of plastic embedded into the side of her building then showed the shattered D&L Liquor sign hanging off the building next door.”That’s how strong the wind was,” she said.It was also strong enough to rip an air conditioner, said to weigh a couple of tons, off the roof of the senior center and leave it some 40 feet from the building, Doherty said.Tapley Avenue resident Anthony Bellia was at work in Woburn when he received a panicked call from his wife. He said all he heard was the word “tornado” and the kids crying in the background, and he hit the road. Large planters lay broken on the sidewalk in front of his door, half the fence was missing in the backyard and his fire pit was snapped in two, lying on either side of the yard. He said he still made out better than his neighbor, who had a two-story-tall uprooted weeping willow tree leaning on his roof.”I never really liked that tree anyway,” Bellia deadpanned.Trees, limbs, debris and downed wires littered Broadway and its side streets, forcing public safety personnel to shut down the major thoroughfare, along with Mountain Avenue, Malden and Revere streets and a half dozen other roads.Paul Dolimpio likened the event to a scene from “The Wizard of Oz.””I was sitting in my office at 715 Broadway ? I said to myself, ?Get away from the window,'” he said. “A few minutes later, things were blowing everywhere. I saw the sign from Five Star Market next door go by, then all hell broke loose.”The tornado tore off siding and rooftops and blew out windows and shattered glass doors up and down Broadway and its side streets. But almost as soon as it had passed, residents came out to check on one another and evaluate the damage.In front of Global Gas, bulldozers scooped up debris and dozens of people wandered the streets while public safety officials, public works employees, business owners and residents started the arduous task of cleaning up, all to the backdrop of sirens and helicopters.Inside For Kids Only child care center at 268A Broadway, all that could be heard was the murmur of adults and the laughter of children. Sarah Maniff praised her staff for keeping calm in the midst of the storm, making the power outage a game and ushering kids away from the windows before things got crazy.”They have no idea what just happened,” she said. “We really were lucky.”Revere City Hall, across the street from For Kids Only, was not so lucky. Entrances were roped off with yellow caution tape, employees were evacuated