Two Tornadoes Ravage Upton, Taking Roof Off Apartment Building

(All photos taken by Ben Parker/WBZ NewsRadio 1030)

UPTON (WBZ-AM) -- The National Weather Service confirmed that two tornadoes touched down in Worcester County overnight.

The wild weather came through the town of Upton, with winds around 100 mph taking down trees, damaging homes, and knocking out power to some residents. 

The storm blew through around 2:30 a.m. Thursday morning. Nearly 600 people were without power in the town Thursday morning, though National Grid said on their website they expected to have power restored by 9 a.m.

"The first one from Douglas, to Uxbrige, Whinville, Northbridge, that one had a path length of about four and a half miles and a max width of 200-yards. The second one in Upton  that had a length of about a mile with a max witdth of 100-yards," said Kimberly Buttrick, Meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Norton, MA. 

Upton Police Chief Michael Bradley told WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Ben Parker that no injuries have been reported.

"There's been talk about a microburst, and basically it was described as a real heavy rain and strong wind event," Chief Bradley said. "Lot of clean-up to do."

Chief Bradley said damage was heaviest around the Main Street area, where the roof was blown off one apartment building and onto a neighboring building.

Residents there said the storm sounded like a freight train coming through. Everyone inside was unhurt, but the power is out, and residents said a lot of water has come into the building.

It wasn't yet clear what caused the freak storm. Eleanor Talbot of the National Weather Service said they would need to "look at the patterns on the ground and stuff to see if it was actual what we call straight-line wind damage and a microburst, or if it was actually some rotation, which could indicate there could have been some tornadic activity."

Many roads in the area were still closed Thursday morning.


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