Tornado update

I realize this post is a few days late in coming, but the tornado and other severe weather that hit Springfield and much of Western Massachusetts on June 1 was disconcerting. I had gotten out of work at 1:30, went for an hour-long run in the 90-degree heat, and when I got back, heard of the tornado warnings. As we get them somewhat frequently this time of year in this region, I brushed it off. I luckily was safe in my apartment when the weather hit.

Where I live now was untouched by the storm. My lovely downtown Springfield, however, was not. The following pictures were taken on Friday, two days after the storm.

Court Square:




A demolished building on Main Street:


Downtown, near the Dakin Animal Rescue:








A building on Main Street that had to be demolished:


As far as I can tell, most of Liberty Heights was missed by the storm's fury. There were some tree limbs blown down by strong winds, and debris spread about down by Chestnut, but the old neighborhood missed the worst of it. Other parts of the city weren't nearly as fortunate.

So, if anyone still reads this, please -- consider giving to the Red Cross or finding another way to help Springfield and our surrounding communities. As Justin Marsh wrote on the Huffington Post website,

"Springfiel­d, Massachuse­tts is a GREAT CITY. My condolence­s to those who have lost loved ones in this tragedy.

In the past two days, I've learned a lot about Springfiel­d... The city has been on an upswing for the better part of a decade -- and it's diverse, with a sizable, increasing­ly mobile Latino and community, and a growing LGBT community.

The American gasoline-p­owered car was invented there, as was the motorcycle and modern fire engine; the first-ever commercial radio station and the first UHF television station were invented and broadcast from Springfiel­d -- and, of course, basketball was invented there!!!

Shay's Rebellion took place there, which led directly to the US Constituti­on. The Springfiel­d Armory, founded by George Washington in 1777 - and its brilliant engineers - helped the U.S. win war after war until it was stupidly shut-down for "costs" during the Vietnam War.

What I'm getting at is: SPRINGFIEL­D is an IMPORTANT CITY, renowned for beautiful architectu­re, ("The City of Homes."). Right now, a lot of those "homes" are in ruins.

Let's rebuild this one right. It deserves it, in my opinion."

Seriously. I'm going to finish this project.

In the meantime, an update on organized walking in Springfield:
"The 6th year of Second Saturday Walking Tours will begin again in April. We're finalizing a few of the details, but the list as it stands is below.

"In the meantime, you might want to take a virtual walking tour with architect (and regular tour-giver) Stephen Jablonski, who was recently featured on WGBY talking about some of the architectural details you might never have noticed on Springfield buildings: Video here (about 4 minutes long).

"Here is our 2011 line-up so far:
• April -- Luann Hood: African American Heritage Trail and PAHMUSA
• May -- Keith Korbut: Automotive History of Springfield
• June -- Burt Freedman: Trees of the City
• July -- Ben Murphy: 'City Beautiful' Movement
• August -- TBD
• September -- Fran Gagnon: Eliot Street, Past & Present, History of St. Michael's Parish
• October -- Bill Devlin: Topic TBA
• November -- TBD"