Tornadoes hit Springfield Mass

[Francis Morin]

Our thoughts are with all residents of this newly afflicted area, whether PGCA members or not. Seems like old Mother Nature has a real vendetta against the USA this year, and not just the "heartland" but now even the land of the "bean and the cod" (Cabots and Lowells nonwithstanding-

Fortunately. the Bay State Balloon Co. is located in Framingham, so the large shipment of their fine product will arrive in Sagola, MI (Da Yoop, Yah) in pleanty of time for the Mass Balloon Shoot- what a hoot!!:cool::cool:

[charlie cleveland]

my hearts out to those tornadoe vitims every where...francis you right mother nature has sure pitted her fury on us this year... charlie

[Dean Romig]

With the exception of the loss of life to four Massachusetts victims and the loss of homes and personal property to hundreds of residents - and I don't wish to appear to be crass or irreverent - the seven tornados that touched down yesterday in south central MA were not much more than big dust devils when compared to the devastating monster tornados in the last month or so that obliterated entire towns and killed a thousand or more with hundreds of people yet to be accounted for.

[Chris Travinski]

We are about 50 miles east of Springfield, and there are a few places around that were hit pretty hard. May not seem like a big deal, but it's alot different to see these things up close instead of on TV.

[Dean Romig]

Hi Chris - We came through an area east of Springfield on 84 today on the way back from Hausman's and saw some pretty impressive damage. Every single tree in a swath about 1/5 mile wide and from the west side of the highway as far as we could see and on the east side as far as we could see was snapped off and on the perimeter of the path all trees were stripped of all leaves. Houses and other buildings sustained severe damage from being entirely flattened to others that had the roofs ripped off and/or exterrior and interrior walls missing. Credit where credit is due, it was a devastating tornado or tornados but still nothing like other parts of the country.

[Chris Travinski]

Hi Dean.
You must be talking about Sturbridge, Ma., our shop is in Southbridge the next town over. It's is amazing how much localized the damage is, there are houses blown apart and 100 yds. away the lawn chairs are still at the tables. The We were fortunate enough to be on the far side of town. I have to agree though, as bad as it seems, nothing like out west.

Did you see any 32" DHE's for sale at Hidden Hollow? Larry was going to be on the look out for me too.
Chris

[Dean Romig]

There were a lot of 12 ga. DHE's with 30" barrels but nothing with 32" barrels sticks in my mind. There were quite a few BHE's with BTFE's but again, I wasn't looking specifically for long barreled Parkers so I really didn't take especial notice of the lengths. Larry would know better.