Tornado

The headquarters for RJ Battles is located in western Mass., and yesterday, around 4:30pm, a tornado rolled through the area. My town was only hit by thunderstorms, but the tornado went right down my Noni's street, fucking up a grammar school and a house and leaving her without power. Her road had to be closed because of trees and power lines in the street.

The tornado went from Westfield to West Springfield, over the Connecticut River and into the south end of Springfield where it did a lot of damage.

A couple people died, including a mother who was shielding her teenage daughter in the family's bathtub.

The day started like any other. It was warm, humid, and sunny. In the morning, a co-worker told me we were supposed to get thunderstorms around 4pm. Just before I left work at 2pm my boss came over and told me that there was a tornado watch on.

Yesterday morning nobody could've predicted the way that the day would turn out. I'm sure that poor woman never thought that before the sun went down she would die.

There was a tractor trailer turned on its side and countless cars crushed by trees and homes and businesses destroyed.

Here, around 8pm, I looked out the window after the thunderstorm ended. The dark clouds were gone and it was unusually bright. The sky was bright yellow and everything had a strange dark glow to it. I went for a walk around and it felt so weird to see all the trees and buildings so oddly lit. It's something I've never seen. I wanted to take a picture but I don't think that would captured the way that everything looked. The light was just too weird.

Today things are back to normal here, but just a little to the south it's still a big mess. All day it was sunny, but all day it was also very cool and comfortable. At times it got very windy too. I'd love for the whole summer to feel like today did.

I'm about to go to bed- windows open, ready for a cool, comfortable sleep, and thankful that my friends and family are safe.