• Tornado that ravaged area 5 years ago is still taking a toll

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Lester and Meg Twarowski sit at Village Green Family Campground in Brimfield at a bar and stool set made from reclaimed wood from trees brought down by the tornado five years ago. T&G Staff/Rick Cinclair
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  By Brian Lee
  Telegram & Gazette Staff
  

  
  Posted May. 31, 2016 at 7:46 PM
  Updated Jun 1, 2016 at 1:45 PM
  
  
  

  In the five years since an EF3 tornado tore a 39-mile scar from Westfield to Charlton, the husband-and-wife owners of Village Green Family Campground in Brimfield say they have taken turns lifting each other up.

  One of Village Green's campers died in the June 1, 2011, tornado, which widened to a half-mile at Brimfield State Forest.

  Then Gov. Deval Patrick declared a state of emergency and ordered National Guard troops to help with cleanup. Statewide, four people died, and many homes and businesses were destroyed.

  Lester and Meg Twarowski's Village Green had 95 trailers at the campground that were damaged. Two "limped out" the week of the tornado and the remainder were heavily damaged. Insurance companies took the remains of some of those trailers, but the couple said they had to put 75 of them in the trash.

  The property had 175 campsites before the tornado, and has recuperated to having 95, of which 55 are lived in seasonally. Mr. Twarowski said he does not see a reason to return the site to its former capacity, unless there's a sudden demand for campsites.

  The Twarowskis have taken turns shedding tears. When cleanup became too overwhelming for Mr. Twarowski, he said, his wife was the emotional rock. But when she was on the verge of breaking down, it was Mr. Twarowski who helped them forge ahead.

  Likewise, the region has been a study in resilience.

  Homes have been rebuilt or repaired in the affected towns of Brimfield, Sturbridge and Southbridge. Businesses have since recovered. The forest, although drastically changed from mature to open along the tornado's path, has become green again.

  Southbridge Building Inspector Nicola Tortis said all of the work has been done to repair or replace the 78 damaged buildings in that town. Three homes were replaced.

  Mr. Tortis called it the biggest weather event in his 30 years on the job. He and the Charlton building inspector had to inspect damaged homes on Charlton and Pleasant streets, while two state inspectors handled homes on Worcester Street.

  Nelson Burlingame, building inspector for Brimfield and Sturbridge, did not return a phone message seeking comment.

  Sturbridge Selectman Mary Blanchard recalled how affected residents turned to elected officials for help. While officials didn't necessarily have all the answers, she said, "We certainly had a wealth of sources to get the answers, not just in Sturbridge, but the other towns, where everyone pulled together. It was amazing how people came together.

  "People did what they could to help their neighbors," she said. "Even people out of town coming in. So we had a lot of resources for people. The state people came through, too. Everybody got through it, thank God."
  

  Some have moved on, but for those such as the Rev. Ian Lynch, former pastor at Brimfield Congregational Church, the tornado remains with them. The church was instrumental in pulling the community together and coordinating volunteer efforts in the hard-hit town.

  Rev. Lynch, who left the area two years ago to serve as pastor in Kirtland, Ohio, said the tornado was the defining moment of his nine-year ministry in Brimfield.

  "I really felt like God had had a hand in preparing me for that," he said. In his years there, the church became well established and connected with the community, placing it in the right position to respond to the needs.

  "Had it been sooner in my ministry, we might not have been able to step up quite in the same way," he said. "There was something about the timing that worked really well for us to do that."

  Its everlasting impact, he said, is that the church needs to be present for moments like that.

  When he left Brimfield, in part because it was transitioning to a part-time ministry, Rev. Lynch said, "There was a huge amount of recovery work" in conjunction with FEMA and other government sources.

  "We were able to help, as I recall, pretty much everyone who came to us with a request. That’s pretty remarkable. That doesn’t happen typically with disasters. There’s always some hurt; there’s always something left undone. The money just runs out; the energies and attention run out," he said.

  At Village Green, the Twarowskis said they are at peace with the fact that the site will never do as much business as it did before the storm. The losses include income from efficiency apartments that were destroyed. The couple is rebuilding a destroyed recreation hall, hoping it will be done in time for their son's wedding in October, and a pavilion. They have already built a private garage, new office and store.

  Mrs. Twarowski said 30 families stayed with them throughout the course of the devastation - her "sturdy 30" to whom she said they are grateful.

  "They literally cleaned up their trailers and either went out and got new ones or tents, and parked them in the Sahari field and came up every weekend, if not more, and picked up rakes and said, 'Let's get to work,' " she recalled.

  She said she understands those who had to leave because of the emotional toll. She said she told them to leave if they had to, but don't give up on camping.

  With the volunteers who helped with their never-ending cleanup effort, naturally the Twarowskis made many friends. But, she divulged, they also made some enemies.

  "Some people don’t like the way I handled things. Brought me to court because I didn’t give them enough money back." Of the 95 trailers that were destroyed, she said, she gave some money back to those who came and got their trailers. Most people left their belongings for the Twarowskis to deal with, and the cleanup has been a massive, all-consuming effort. At one time, a 15-foot stack of decks had been compiled. Some of it has been repurposed.

  Before the tornado, the Twarowskis say, they were eyeing retirement, and the 100 acres of firewood they're selling was envisioned as retirement money. Now that money is being used for the recovery, and they estimate it'll be 20 years until they're able to retire.

  Mr. Twarowski said, "We owe as much money as we did when we first bought" 20 years ago. "We have to borrow again because insurance didn’t cover the first year. We spent $100,000 on cleanup that wasn’t covered. We spent (another) $100,000 on cleanup that wasn't covered the second year. That’s not talking about paying for equipment. That was just the actual cost of buying fuel and Dumpsters. It took us two years to get the trailers cleared out of here and the trash."

  On the bright side, the available campsites are clean slates, Mrs. Twarowski said. The sites are a clear canvas to put trees and gardens wherever a camper wants.

  Mr. Twarowski said he is happy to have rebuilt.

  "Would I have done this again? Yeah. For my friends," he said. "After you own a campground for a while, you tend to lose your outside friends. You end up having a circle. Then they become really good friends."

  In terms of the emotional aftermath, Mrs. Twarowski said the howling wind, snapping of broken trees and smell of fresh pine are unnerving.

  It's something to which Southbridge resident Daniel A. Butler can relate. The Brookside Road resident, whose bedroom, four-season room and portion of his roof were badly damaged in the twister, motioned toward his 3-year-old daughter, Dakota, his "post-tornado baby," and is thankful she's not paranoid about weather like he is.

  Mr. Butler took photographs of the disaster while it was unfolding and has since co-written a 58-page illustrated book about the tornado, titled "It's Here." That's the text message he sent to his now-fiancée and co-author Kristin Fournier, who was at work when the storm hit.

  The tornado left dozens of trees toppled in his yard, but cleverly, Mr. Butler got them cleared by offering to allow the state to park equipment on his property, provided they shredded his fallen trees.

  Mr. Butler said he already had post-traumatic stress from being trapped in his home during Hurricane Ivan when he lived in Florida. He said his home has been repaired, and he made new friends in the neighborhood and beyond, but still suffers psychologically from the tornado. He has since become a certified SKYWARN spotter and his cellphone carries four apps to check every aspect of a storm.

  He vows to never be caught off guard again. He said he has winter and summer bags packed in case he and his family need to seek refuge.

  In Brimfield State Forest, close to 1,000 acres were damaged by the tornado, of which 600 were the core tornado path of mostly oak and pine trees that got "wiped out," said Peter Church, director of forest stewardship for the state Department of Conservation and Recreation.

  To address public safety immediately after the tornado, with federal assistance, the state cleared all downed woody debris from recreation areas such as trails, roadways and day-use areas, he said. In the year that followed, it cleared forest roads to a 100-foot buffer and set up fire breaks. Last year, $150,000 was spent in mitigation in Brimfield, he said.

  Five years later, the tornado path is still evident from hilltops, but the forest is "greening up really well," with a tremendous amount of regrowth and many young trees coming up, some more than 10 feet tall, Mr. Church said.

  Birds that like open areas, such as whippoorwills and bobolinks, have migrated to the forest.

  Mr. Twarowski, the campground owner, said he, too, has noticed migration, as there are more prairie birds and sandpipers, compared to the blue jays and blackbirds that had previously inhabited what was once a deep forest.