Tornado anniversary

Anniversary of close-call tornado brings back memories to campus

On June 1, 2011, the unthinkable happened—a persistent tornado carved a 39-mile path of destruction through 10 towns and cities in Western Massachusetts. The EF-3, which reached a width of a half mile, destroyed approximately 500 homes and caused millions of dollars in damage. Three people were killed.

The tornado sliced through the town of Wilbraham, one of the hardest hit areas. Wilbraham & Monson Academy was spared, the treacherous trail just a mile south of campus. Interestingly, the twister exited Wilbraham into Monson, where it ripped through the former site of Monson Academy.

Below are accounts—in their own words—from current WMA Faculty and Staff regarding that memorable and disturbing day.

BriAn EAsLEr thEn AssociAtE hEAd of schooL, dEAn of studEnts The seniors were gone and we were still in school. I was in the Deans Office and (Administrative Assistant) Cindy Shults had the alert radio, but honestly, we would get those alerts all the time. I was thinking: Tornado? Western Massachusetts? Never going to happen. I had actually just called my wife and told her I was thinking of getting a haircut before dinner, and she said, “Are you hearing the tornado warnings?” She convinced me to stay and not go get my haircut.

I was sitting in the Deans Office, and I got a call from someone and they were at work in the Agawam/West Springfield area. They said there was a tornado and it was headed for us. That’s when I started to take it seriously.

I was tracking it on my phone but still not super worried. We gave the order on campus to shelter in place. I went up to Rich 4 and my plan was to start clearing my way through the floors. Some of the boys were in the shower and I was calm Mr. Easler, asking them to hurry up and get to the basement.

I was standing in the lobby and looking out the back window. It’s a tiny window. I remember looking out the window and thinking, “What is that?” I went closer to the window and it looked like there was a big smudge on the window. Things weren’t connecting in my head, and then I saw a roof lift off one of the houses on Tinkham Road and vaporized inside the smudge. And then I turned around and was no longer calm Mr. Easler to the boys. We got down to the basement fast.

We were all huddled in the basement of Rich. We had people in the basement of Smith, Wallace Blake, I think there were some folks sheltering in the gym. Campus wasn’t full so it wasn’t too bad. People were nervous and I was tracking the tornado on my phone. We could see it wasn’t right on top of us.

Once it looked like it was moving away from us I came up and went on the front porch of Rich. Mostly I was making sure there weren’t any stragglers on campus. I stood on the porch and thought, “What’s that noise?” It sounded like a freight train. Again, the dots weren’t connecting for me. All of a sudden, I realized that was the tornado crossing Main Street. It was a mile down the road. We stayed sheltered until it was all clear and then we let everybody out. It was a crazy hour.

Erik kindBLom dEAn of studiEs I remember being the head coach of (daughter, Class of ’17) Emma’s youth softball team. All the parents were contacting me about a bad storm coming in and wondering if the game was canceled. I told them it was not canceled yet and only go to the game if they felt comfortable doing so. Emma and I hopped in the car and were off to the game, which I think was at Greenleaf Park that day in Springfield.

We had just crossed the Stony Hill Road intersection and received word the game was canceled. We turned around and zipped home. I turned on the news when we got home and saw the tornado coming up the Connecticut River. After a couple minutes, I told the family it’s time to grab the pets and head downstairs. (Wife) Anne noticed two or three international students walking toward campus from the Village Store. I went out and told them to immediately come to our basement. I never heard any train-like whistles. I recall wind and dark clouds. We waited and waited. I can’t remember how long.

We reached a point when things seemed safe, and I brought the international students into Rich Hall to the Campus Center staircase and told them to join the other students. I caught up with Brian Easler and remember standing with him and looking at the southwest sky from the Rich Hall parking lot and seeing orange and dark gray skies—very ominous. You kind of felt safe because they were in the distance, but then again you didn’t feel safe because the sky looked dangerous.

WMA students and faculty did their share to help the local community clean up from the tornado in 2011.

mikE mAnnix rich hALL dorm PArEnt I was sitting in my apartment on Rich 4 and heard someone yell, “Everyone out of your dorm rooms!” It was, then, Dean of Students Brian Easler. I walked to the south end of the building and saw a sky that reminded me of the tornado clouds I experienced when I lived in Indiana.

I helped Mr. Easler gather the students and bring them to the bottom of the stairs that lead from the Dining Hall lobby area into the Spa. We waited there for quite some time. Faculty members joined with their children and pets. We rode out the storm in Rich Hall until things settled in the evening.

We needed dorm parents on duty all night that evening because of the power outage. I took a shift in the middle of the night, but other faculty members were still helping because they were not able to sleep. In the end, we kept our students safe and the administration did a great job getting our community through a few difficult days that followed.

stuArt WhitcomB fAcuLty, EngLish dEPArtmEnt June 1st was to be a celebration—my daughter, Caeli (Class of ’25), was turning 4 and we had a party planned at the Wilbraham Children’s Museum. Located at the intersection of Tinkham Road and Main Street, it featured a big playground and some tables for eating cake—perfect for our needs. A few hours before the party it looked like we might see thunderstorms so we called an audible, instructing families to meet in our backyard on the WMA campus.

The tornado, when it arrived, blasted down Tinkham Road and through the Wilbraham Children’s Museum playground, tearing down trees, toppling swing sets and littering the area with shrapnel from the vegetation and homes it had stripped along the way.

Thankfully we were safe, huddled in the basement of Smith Hall a mere mile away. Caeli’s birthday cake, en route with her grandparents, was trapped on the wrong side of the damage so Tiffany Alrefae, then Dean of Residential Life, scurried up to her apartment and brought down the leftover cake from her recent baby shower—such a wonderful gesture, the symbolism of which had poets reaching for their pens.

We were lucky. Frankly, I do not dwell too often on that day for the “what ifs” are unbearable.

michAEL dziurA fAcuLty, EngLish dEPArtmEnt We were at Caeli Whitcomb’s birthday party in Smith Hall. Camille (Class of ’27), a couple weeks shy of 2 years old, discovered plastic Disney princess shoes and was walking around the lobby. Mr. Whitcomb and Mr. Swanson came in from outside and mentioned that the sky looked strange. Mr. Whitcomb wondered whether we were going to have a tornado, and I told him I didn’t think so. Mrs. Dziura and I had lived in Memphis for four years, and I thought I knew everything about tornadoes. Turns out I knew nothing.

Once the tornado hit, we all went into Smith basement and waited for more information. Mrs. Dziura and I were the head dorm parents in Wallace Blake at that time, and once the tornado passed, she took the opportunity to bring Gabriel (’24) and Camille back to our dorm. I stayed down the hill until Mr. Easler handed out walkie talkies and started to put the safety plan into motion. I should say that working with him in a crisis situation immediately gave me the sense that everything was going to be OK.

I got back to Wallace Blake just in time to find out that there was potentially another tornado headed in our direction. Mrs. Dziura, the other WB dorm parents and I brought everyone into the concrete basement and sat in the dark. After a while, the weather passed and Mark Fischer brought food up from the dining hall on a golf cart. Everyone was shaken, but OK, and once everyone went to bed, the dorm parents needed to take shifts sitting in the lobby on fire watch because the power outage knocked out the fire alarms. I took the 2 to 5 a.m. shift and watched “Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia” on my still-charged MacBook.

The power came back the next day, and everything went back to some semblance of normal. I was grateful for Mr. Easler’s guidance, for being a part of such a close-knit community and for having a concrete shelter to go to in case of an emergency. Of course, my family and I needed to retreat to that shelter again (for a microburst) one month later, but that is another story ...

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Inside the Athenaeum

• Emalee Watson ’21 and Tatum Perkins ’21

• left: Enrique Rosado ’22

right: Denzel Muthua ’22

Wilbraham & Monson Academy 423 Main Street Wilbraham, MA 01095-1715 www.wma.us tel: 413.596.6811

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