Rare Twister Hits Boston Area

REVERE, Mass. (AP) -- A storm system that wreaked havoc across the eastern half of the U.S. spawned a tornado that ripped roofs off homes in suburban Boston, uprooted trees and forced businesses to close.

The tornado, a rarity in Massachusetts, touched down in Revere, a coastal city of nearly 52,000 residents just north of Boston, on Monday morning. City officials said several people suffered minor injuries, including a baby who was in a car and was hurt by flying glass and an elderly woman who suffered cuts.

"Given the magnitude of the storm, it's really a miracle that no one sustained more serious injuries," Mayor Daniel Rizzo said.

The tornado was spawned by a powerful storm that moved through the Boston area shortly after 9 a.m., causing significant flooding. The National Weather Service said it was a relatively modest EF-2 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale of 0 to 5.

The tornado carved a 2-mile path, generated maximum wind gusts of up to 120 mph and was about three-eighths of a mile wide at its peak, the weather service said. It touched down at 9:32 a.m. near the Chelsea-Revere line and was on the ground about 4 minutes.

Rizzo said 65 homes and businesses were damaged, 13 of them left uninhabitable. He said about 2,800 residences were without power but many were expected to have it restored by midnight.

The weather service said it was the first tornado in Suffolk County, which includes Boston and the northern communities of Revere, Chelsea and Winthrop, since it began keeping records on them in 1950. It said Massachusetts has had 162 tornadoes during that time, the majority of them weak.