Berkshire Residents Still Remember A Devastating Twister

A few facts for Bay State residents regarding May 29th. It's the day that I began my career in professional radio 41 years ago, our 35th President of The United States, John F. Kennedy was born east of us in Brookline. Those residing in Berkshire county will NEVER forget when Mother Nature gave portions of our tri-state region the scare of their lives back in 1995. On that particular day, we felt oppressive humidity and summer like temperatures in the 80's, but the early evening hours proved to be a true attention getter.

A strong line of thunderstorms from The Empire State's western Catskill mountains was making it's way in our backyard accompanied by an excessive amount of wind and hail. Portions of New York's Hudson Valley experienced massive amounts of rain and heavy thunderstorms as reports confirmed that an active F-2 tornado entered Columbia county and the path of this horrific storm was heading east toward the Massachusetts border.

After 7 pm, this intense system was elevated to F-4 status according to the Fujita scale that measure tornadoes of high capacity. When it descended into the Great Barrington area, this storm touched down on route 71 at The Walter J. Koladza Airport, The fair grounds on route 7 felt Mother Nature's wrath as this twister resulted in damages totaling $25 million. Afterwards the venue was unrecognizable.

This dark day also resulted in three lost lives as 2 students and a staffer at The Eagleton School were returning to campus during the heart of this storm as their vehicle was picked up by the strong winds on route 23 at the Great Barrington-Monterey town line. Their memories remain eternal and everlasting . 25 people were also injured after the twister came to rest in Monterey leaving a swath of destruction in a 11 mile radius of Eastern New York and southern Berkshire county in Massachusetts.

On a personal note, I was out of the area and en route to Lakeville after attending a Norwich Navigators game in Eastern Connecticut prior to when the twister touched ground. At that time, I was living in north western Litchfield county just 20 miles south of the storm's peak. Luckily, this area was spared due to the storm's path which targeted two portions of our listening area. When I watched the 11 o'clock news on TV, this weather related tragedy led the broadcast leaving me numb as this natural disaster hit close to home. My heart became heavy as prayers went to those who lost their lives in Berkshire county.

Local residents STILL remember this tragedy and recall exactly where they were at that dark moment 29 years ago. This natural disaster impacted our listening area as statistics show the Great Barrington twister was one of the strongest to hit Massachusetts parallel to a 1953 F-4 tornado that touched ground in the city of Worcester which resulted in 94 fatalities and also caused excessive damage to that portion of Central Massachusetts.

13 years ago, on June 1st, an F-3 tornado hit the Springfield area causing millions of dollars in damages in the Bay State's 3rd largest city. There were 3 fatalities and 200 injuries as this twister also passed through Westfield, West Springfield, Monson, Wilbraham, Brimfield, Southbridge, Sturbridge and Charlton. The storm resulted in over $225 million in damages.

BOTTOM LINE: Statistics show a total of 34 tornadoes were documented throughout New England. You never know when to "expect the unexpected"