This massive tree is going to be here for a few days until a crew can come take care of it for the Holden family whose yard it now sits in following a tornado coming through town on Saturday… the clean-up continues for this house and many others in the area of Willow Brook Road. The sound of wood chippers and chainsaws fill the air in this section of Holden.
Nick Kent, Owner of Kent Tree and Landscape, "Word on the street says it’s a tornado.”
David Richard was helping out a family that had their property affected by the storm, "I never, I never been in my 77 years, I never been through a storm like this.”
Douglas Waite said he was driving in Worcester when his phone started sending tornado warning alerts… his wife and son took shelter in their basement. “It went this way. You can see a tree, big tree, fell in the neighbor's property that way. And it went over their house, that direction. And my deck chairs didn't fare very well. The three of them just completely imploded. So, we found them under trees and stuff halfway down the street.”
David Richard’s son, daughter in-law and grandchildren took cover as well. Richard, “Mid-storm they were in the living room and they got scared because the tree started breaking. And, he says, ‘We've got to go down the cellar.’”
On Monday the sun shone in Holden. It's another day of cleaning up what they can. Richard, "Couple of trees here fell, fell and broke the fence here. Which, my son had fixed that two years ago. It broke on that corner. So now it's on this corner… We were here all yesterday cleaning the lawn. Got that done. Now I'm going around the pool and after I’m going to dig up the robot, still in a pool.”
Nick Ken of Kent Tree and Landscaping added, “I live right down the road. My mom called me and said, we got a big tornado going through. I'm like, five houses down. Rushing home. And I get here, and everything's gone and all the trees are down.”
Nick Kent owns Kent Tree and Landscape… the Holden resident says they called in all the troops to help clear out their neighbors’ yards. Kent, “There's really healthy trees. They got blown over. So I can only imagine what the winds were like because it takes a lot of forest to blow, you know, a ginormous oak tree, you know, just over with roots and all.”
While insurance will usually cover damaged structures… the cost to remove fallen trees which don’t hit any structures ultimately falls on the homeowners… and despite some chairs and fences needing to be replaced… neighbors in Holden are thankful the storm didn’t do too much damage. David Richard, “We lucked out. I tell you, we were damn lucky somebody upstairs were looking down on us.”
Neighbors here said the worst of the storm and tornado ultimately lasted only a few minutes and then everyone was out walking around and checking in on each other. Homeowners we spoke with say they’re also thankful to the town of Holden’s DPW and fire department who were on the scene right away.
In Holden, Dan Reidy Spectrum News.