Aidan Ridings was home at approximately 11:45 Tuesday morning when, in less than a minute, an EF-1 tornado turned his Tinkham Road driveway and front yard into a wilderness of entangled tree limbs and uprooted stumps.
“When it all happened, I was on the phone with my mom. I got the (phone alert) warning, and all of a sudden the wind just picked up right away. There was probably a 30-second delay between the warning and when the tornado, like, you could feel it,” said Ridings. “You could hear it, you could feel the pressure change, yeah.
“I just went right downstairs, tried to get the dogs in the basement. Of course, they wouldn’t listen. It was just stay away from all the windows … once you look outside, it’s scary. Everything’s everywhere.”
Across the street, a hot tub flew out of one yard, over a truck, and landed in another yard on its side. Next door, Suzy Brzezinski had television news crews in her backyard, where an uprooted tree flipped their shed onto its backside. In it was stored their generator.
Ridings, a 22-year-old, Stonehill University graduate (Old Rochester Regional Class of 2019), is about to start a new career as a special education teacher in the Wareham School District.
So much for summer vacation. He has a giant mess to clean up but, like many residents, he is grateful to come away unscathed. A few cell-phone photo shares, and his parents were on their way home from a New Hampshire vacation that was supposed to last until Saturday.
Susan Linhares, Holly Hollow Lane, is a Skywarn weather watcher with the NOAA, a volunteer group, and told The Wanderer that Tuesday’s storm created a tornado that plowed through her backyard.
“It was unbelievable!” said Linhares, who knew it was a tornado because “I heard it like a train coming.” Linhares said that the number of trees brought down by the twisting gale were too numerous to count.
“You wouldn’t believe it if you could see it, but you can’t get down here,” she said. Linhares reported trees of all varieties were stripped of their leaves, had canopies snapped off and whole trees twisted and uprooted.
As the nanosecond ticked by between when she heard the train-like sound and the aftermath, Linhares grabbed her cat and fought against the wind to close her kitchen door before heading to the basement.
“I’m stuck here for a few days,” she said, still feeling a bit shocked at what she witnessed. “It came so quickly and was gone quickly.”
Friends are providing water and food to the impacted family so grateful that, “No one got hurt.” They are also grateful their home was spared.
Those samples were needles in a haystack of damage that also shut down a section of North Street north of Route 195 and caused damage along Acushnet Road and neighboring areas. Homes were without power, and utility crews worked to clear debris and restore power.
As of Tuesday afternoon, utility crews were still clearing roads and addressing electrical damage, while Mattapoisett Police were managing affected roadways and advising residents looking to go home.
The Town of Mattapoisett has asked people to avoid downed power lines and report any blocked roadways to the Police Department at 508-758-4141. Any questions should be directed to the town administrator’s office at 508-758-4100.
By Mick Colageo and Marilou Newell