Tornado relief blows in

REVERE – Margaret Cardone was baking Christmas cookies Monday night when she answered a knock on her door and found Mayor Daniel Rizzo holding a $2,500 check to help make up for the ordeal and expenses Cardone faced after the July 28 tornado damaged her home.The Taft Street resident of 39 years was one of four Revere homeowners who received a hand-delivered check from Rizzo, made possible by a donation fund set up in the tornado?s wake.?I couldn?t even tell how many people were crowded in the doorway,” Cardone said. “I was taken aback but, without the mayor starting the fund, it wouldn?t have happened – and then there are all the people who donated.”The charitable fund was established following the July 28 tornado that damaged Cardone?s home and others.At the start of its destructive sprint through the city?s center, the mid-morning tornado ripped the roof off the home behind Cardone?s, sending wood flying into the side of her house. It also uprooted a pine tree in her backyard that crashed in her house, smashing windows.Cardone, a career Boston University employee, was not at home but one of her three daughters huddled with Cardone?s 7-year-old grandson, John, as the tornado smashed its way down Broadway, hitting Taft and other residential side streets.?My daughter?s (Barbara?s) garden was covered in debris. We had wood sticking out of the house,” she said.Cardone?s home sustained more than $60,000 in damage. And although she credited Commerce Insurance agent Candace Perkins with helping her process and file claims, Cardone said there is still siding and window work that needs to be done on her home. The check Rizzo handed her, coincidentally, matched her insurance deductible.Her neighbors pitched in to help Cardone and other Taft Street residents rebuild, but she said more oversight is needed over insurance companies and contractors who responded slowly or poorly, in her view, to tornado victims? needs.?Things took way too long to get fixed,” she said.