Worcester Survivor of ‘53 Tornado Recalls Devastation
Saturday, June 09, 2012
(Courtesy photo/Assumption College)
On June 9, 1953 a tornado ripped through several communities, first touching down in Petersham around 4:25 p.m., and left annihilation in its wake. Worcester was not spared. On West Boylston Street, where Quinsigamond Community College stands today, was Assumption College – home to both a college and prep school. In what seemed like a flash, property was devastated, three people – a priest and two nuns working in the kitchen – were killed, and a scar was forever imprinted on Lemaire. He took GoLocalWorcester through the moments leading up to, during, and after the terrible storm.
Religious Work
“We were on a religious retreat,” Lemaire said. “We were conducting a series of religious exercises. I was getting ready to go into chapel. I was waiting for my next assignment. All of a sudden, it came. We ran for cover, not everyone could make it. Some of us ran to help the injured. I helped carry injured people to another part of the building away from danger. It was a scramble to help everyone.”
The tornado hit Worcester around 5 p.m., having already claimed two lives in Barre, which was hit right after Petersham. Making matters worse, he said, was that the road was littered with debris, mostly fallen trees and tree limbs. Ambulances and fire trucks could not pass through.
“Some of our families came over to rescue us during the night,” said Lemaire.
(Courtesy photo/Assumption College)
Total Destruction
One thing that stuck with him was the deafening noise.
“It sounded like a huge vacuum cleaner,” Lemaire said. “The noise was ear-bursting. We had never experienced that.”
As quick as it came, it was over and Lemaire recalls returning to the college the next day, when they were allowed to go in and retrieve whatever valuables and other items remained. It was, he acknowledged, “massive destruction.”
Indeed, Assumption College was completely destroyed. In all, 71 people in Worcester were killed. The tornado claimed a total of 94 lives, ripping through four other towns after leveling Worcester. When all was said and done, the tornado had stayed on the ground for almost an hour and a half and left ruin in its wake through much of Central Mass.
A Fateful Decision
As devastating as the tornado was to the Assumption family, it could have been worse – much worse.
Father Donat Lamothe was a senior at the prep school that year. Graduation was supposed to have been on the day of the tornado. Instead, because of the religious activities, the decision was made to push up to the Saturday prior.
“Normally, the prep school would have been in schedule,” said Lamothe. “You would have had 400 students on campus,” said Lamothe. “It was a tragic event. We weren’t the only ones to suffer. But we were right in the middle of it.”
Having graduated a week earlier, Lamothe was home in Keene, N.H. when he heard about the tornado on the radio.
"A week later I returned and helped out at the campus.”
Ironically, according to Lamothe, there had been discussion about separating the college and the prep school because the school was starting to outgrow its space. After the tornado, Assumption temporarily relocated to Main Street. In 1955 construction started on a new campus on Salisbury Street. Students and faculty occupied the building by the spring of 1956.
To this day, there is a monument on the grounds of Quinsigamond College in honor of all who died in Worcester during the tornado.
(Courtesy photo/Assumption College)
Death of a Young Girl
State Sen. Stephen Brewer was at the dedication of the monument and he can readily remember that the first two lives claimed by the tornado were in Barre. To this day, his voice cracks when retelling the story of one of the deaths.
“There was a street called Lover’s Lane,” Brewer said. “The cellar hole is still there. There was a family there. They were woefully poor, but they had this little girl and she was going to be the first kid in the family to graduate high school. They couldn’t rub two nickels together, but they got enough money together to buy that girl a brand new dress to wear to her graduation. After the tornado hit, they found their little girl in a tree 300 feet away from the house. She was dead. They buried her in that dress they had bought her for her graduation.”
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