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Thunderstorm pummels towns west and south of Boston

E-mail|Link|Comments () July 8, 2009 07:28 PM

Meghan Miller surveyed the damage to her home on Edge Hill Road in Hopkinton with her grandfather, Richard Martin, after a possible tornado hit areas in Hopkinton this afternoon. (Barry Chin/Globe Photo)

By Milton Valencia, Globe Staff, and John M. Guilfoil, Globe Correspondent

HOPKINTON -- A supercell, the highest category of thunderstorm, tore apart tree limbs and blew debris along the Interstate 495 corridor this afternoon in communities from Hopkinton to Taunton.

The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for the Hopkinton area and then a severe thunderstorm warning for the Taunton area. Rebecca Gould, a meteorologist for the service, said a team would be sent to Hopkinton to determine if a tornado had hit. Still, the high winds and large hail in the area seemed to do enough.

The hail collected on grass as if it were snow. Trees snapped and blocked streets, and debris was strewn about in what seemed like a line that ran in parallel to Interstate 495.

“The rain was bouncing off the ground,” said Dan DeCristofaro, an 18-year-old from Hopkinton who was out playing basketball and was forced to sprint to seek shelter in a nearby pizza shop from the storm.

Authorities reported no serious injuries, though one man in Milford told authorities he may have been struck by lighting. Officials were busy dealing with nuisance calls such as flooded basements and downed trees.

“We knew at one point that we’d be going out the door. And, sure enough, we started getting the calls, one after another,” said Hopkinton Fire Lieutenant William Lukey. “We got hit with them.”

Annie St. Cyr of the Hopkinton Country Club on Saddle Hill Road, which is near 495 and the Turnpike, said, "We saw hail, rain, thunder, lightning, wind." But no one saw any tornado.

Hopkinton Police Officer Scott Vanraalten said, "We had a tremendous amount of rain, thunder lightning half-inch hail--and we've been dealing with flooding and trees coming down... but no reports of tornadoes."

Gould said tornadoes were "always possible with any severe thunderstorm."

The showers and thunderstorms were expected to continue through the early evening and then die down after that, she said.

Weather spotters reported hail or wind damage in in Northborough, Hopkinton, Wrentham, Millis, Mansfield, Norton, Dartmouth and Taunton.

Globe correspondent Jack Nicas and Martin Finucane of the Globe staff contributed to this report.