In the News

DUDLEY, MA (WGGB/WSHM) -

The National Weather Service has released new information about the EF-1 tornado that touched down in Worcester County over the weekend. 

Officials said that it started in Dudley and moved a half mile into Webster, destroying homes, businesses, and knocking down trees.

It's a much different scene in Dudley than over in Webster.  There are still a lot of trees down and debris scattered, but all the homes that were hit here have a green sign posted on their door, meaning they have been were deemed safe.

Dudley Fire Chief Dean Kochanowski told Western Mass News that calls for assistance started flooding into their department by 10 a.m. Saturday. 

"We started getting multiple calls of power outages and trees on buildings and things like that.  They responded quickly.  We had multiple crews out there.  They were able to go door-to-door and help find out if the citizens were okay," Kochanowski explained.

Downed trees, low hanging wires, and debris are still scattered throughout multiple streets in Dudley. 

"A couple of chimneys, some roofs, outdoor things, trees on cars, things like that.  There was a front porch ripped off a house. That was probably the worst I saw, but it was a multiple family residence and we were very fortunate that no people were seriously hurt because it's a big elderly population down there," Kochanowski said.

Today, Rep. Richard Neal visited the town to get a first-hand look at the damage. 

"We're going to see some of the damage that took place and see how we can best respond to the request that FEMA will make of them and also to understand the role that private insurance plays, so you're going to have a state effort, a local effort, and certainly monitoring from the federal government," Neal

Neal said that even though Webster is not part of his district, the cleanup efforts will extend to the town. 

"You can see that the border is really negligible.  It's just a street sign - Welcome to Dudley and Welcome to Webster - so I think the political jurisdiction doesn't take into account a tornado, so working with both these communities, we'll do this hand in glove with Webster and with Dudley," Neal added.

Kochanowski said that they share mutual aid with Webster and they will continue to assist their neighbors with cleanup.