Mattapoisett cleans up from tornado ahead of another threat of severe weather
MATTAPOISETT - Areas hit hard by Tuesday's tornadoes are racing to clean up before the next threat of severe weather on Thursday.
Grilled porterhouse was on the DeSouza's dinner menu Wednesday night, with no power still and a borrowed generator struggling to keep the basics on.
"Well lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place does it?" Mike DeSouza said smiling.
After Mike DeSouza spent a second day lumberjacking in his Mattapoisett yard, his brother-in-law texted him the bad news, Thursday night's forecast duplicates Tuesday morning's tornado risk.
"I hope not that's all I can say," DeSouza said. "One time in 44 years, I don't want it to happen again."
Indeed, that hope was echoed across this neighborhood where an EF-1 twister blasted through, as it carved a mile-long, 300 yard wide swath of snapped and uprooted trees, dumping them on sheds and pools and power lines, but doing remarkably little damage to homes.
"It is what it is as my mother would say," said Pam Talbot.
With neighborhood streets finally clear, Pam Talbot took a stroll with her daughter and grandson to survey what Mother Nature had done in her three minutes of wrath, while praying she wouldn't deliver another cruel blow just two days later. "Pretty scary," Talbot said.
A couple of streets away, Cari Mailloux was taking over the backyard cleanup. "The shock's kind of wore off, to trying to clean," Mailloux said. "We're doing the best we can. All of our friends are here, it takes a village."
This village was burning off some of the debris, but there's enough firewood here for a lifetime. The folks here hope they'll dodge a second round of misery.
"You would have never thought Mattapoisett would be tornado zone," Mailloux said.
