Tornado in Mattapoisett touched down for three minutes, National Weather Service says
MATTAPOISETT - A small tornado was confirmed in Mattapoisett during Tuesday's storms.
The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning there around 11 a.m. The agency then sent a survey team to the town and confirmed "a tornado did take place" in a statement Tuesday afternoon.
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Researchers inspected the damage and data to determine the tornado was an EF-1 rating and was on the ground for about three minutes. It lifted off the ground on North Street near Eldorado Drive.
There have been no reports of any serious injuries.
"Every time you get a warning it's nothing around here," said Marcia Dupont.
This time, that just wasn't the case. "It's getting darker and I was like let me listen outside," Dupont said. "It was not that loud train noise but to me there was a different noise out there, and I'm like this is not good."
Dupont said as debris started to hit her house, she went to find her cat. She snapped up her four-legged friend and bolted for cover.
"This is real, get out of here, even though you want to stand there and look at it," Dupont said.
As she hunkered in the garage, branches clanged off the roof and water began leaking through. "I got a hole in the roof like those people on TV! I am one of those people now," Dupont said.
She emerged to find power crews splitting trees apart, and power lines down across North Street. A giant tree smashed their neighbors' chicken coop.
Around the corner on Eldorado Drive, it's a roadblock of fallen trees.
"I told my boss, 'Hey I think a tornado just hit my house so I don't think I am going to be logging in anytime soon,'" said Dan Roellke.
Roellke watched out the window as a huge tree fell between on property, perfectly splitting a small opening between the garage and his home.
"It's like about two and a half feet in diameter, it's a giant tree, and we have been wanting to take it down," Roellke said. "Of course, Mother Nature took care of it for me."
Somehow it missed his pool and spared his two boats.
"If it was a honestly a like few feet to my right it would have went right into my mud room and smooshed me," Roellke said.
Another tornado touched down in Marstons Mills on Cape Cod Tuesday morning. The EF-0 tornado was on the ground for about four minutes.
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On July 16, an EF-0 tornado with estimated winds of 80 mph touched down briefly in North Brookfield damaging trees in the area. It traveled about two miles.
On Saturday July 29, an EF-1 tornado with estimated maximum winds of 105 mph touched down in Foxboro near Easton and Mansfield. It lasted about 300 yards.
A total of three tornado warnings were issued during the torrential rain storms Tuesday, which left several roads flooded in eastern Massachusetts.
