July 23, 2010

City facing big cleanup after tornado

Crews are still trying to cope with the damage left by a tornado that tore a path Wednesday afternoon from Rockwell Park to Middle Street.
The National Weather Service said the twister ripped off tree tops and plucked other trees right out of the ground as it cut for a mile and a half through the heart of Bristol, leaving a swath of debris but no injuries or deaths.
With a maximum wind speed of 90 miles an hour, the weather service rated the tornado a relatively mild one with a 25-yard wide path that began near the city’s historic West End park.
The worst-hit section, along Blakeslee Street, saw trees snapped and broken for much of its length.
City public works crews said they had a tough time cutting their way through a sea of fallen trees left by the tornado along the road that cuts between Federal Hill and Riverside Avenue, including the Huntington Woods complex.
The “shearing off and twisting of tree tops,” some flung in opposite directions, is characteristic of a small tornado, weather service experts said in a statement released late Thursday.
At Rockwell Park, trees were knocked to the ground along the outfield fence of Muzzy Field, the basketball court and elsewhere, but despite the widespread damage, none of the park’s buildings or major facilities got hit.
As the storm rolled into town, the sky turned ominously dark, the wind howled and rain fell with Biblical fervor, drenching low-lying areas and turning many Federal Hill streets into raging torrents.
On Riverside Avenue, the wind shoved a Dumpster several feet, according to T.J. Barnes, and on Main Street the waters gushing downhill were strong enough to carry off a Press vending box. Click here for full story.

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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

"The World According to TJ"...sounds like a good title for a book or a movie. (kind of like "The World According to Garp")

Marc B said...

Downs Street is still in bad shape. Wires are still down as of 4:15PM Friday when I drove by. (It looks like they're underneath chopped up fall trees).

Anonymous said...

The Mayor and his Union pals are probably arranging things so the City workers are getting paid double overtime for work they should be doing normally.

Anonymous said...

(Yawn) When are these jerks going to grow up and take a little pride by helping their community? I guess they only know how to complain(about everything.)

Anonymous said...

Headline should read:

City facing big cleanup after this administration gets done!

Anonymous said...

I'm kinda surprised the pinheads haven't tried to blame the tornado on the administration. Maybe a more fitting headline would be:

City faces big cleanup after large quantities of bulls#$%t thrown by twits on blog.

Anonymous said...

7:59

Thank you Mayor?Ward

Anonymous said...

The "Barnes". The "Barnes". The Barnes. You'd think they were the only people in town. They wouldn't be donating money to causes around town if it wasn't a tax deduction!

Anonymous said...

So who is supposed to clean up this mess if not the city workers? You? That'll never happen. I doubt you know the meaning of "volunteerism".

Anonymous said...

8:26 What a stupid thing to say when the article has nothing to do with the Barnes Family. I bet you have never donated a dime of your money to a single cause tax deductible or not.

Anonymous said...

12:38 PM: Once again you're jumping to conclusions and once again (as usual)...WRONG