Cape Cod Residents Cleaning Up after EF-1 Tornado Touches Down Twice Tuesday

July 24, 2019 5:48 pm

By: Tim Studebaker

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HARWICH, MASS. (WLNE) – More than 24 hours after an EF-1 tornado touched down twice on Cape Cod, along with severe thunderstorms, scenes of damage line the roadways from Yarmouth through Dennis, all the way to Harwich.

Now, the cleanup is on with neighborhood after neighborhood filled with the sounds of chainsaws.

Harwich Resident John Moore says, “It’s like a bomb went off. The whole place. Down this whole street.”

Yesterday’s tornado and severe thunderstorms carved a path across the mid-Cape, starting in Yarmouth where it ripped the roof right off of a hotel. Shamus Lombard from Salem, Massachusetts was staying at the hotel when the storm hit.

Lombard says, “It sounded awful, but it went by pretty quick. And then when we came back, the roof was gone.”

Guests on the other side of the building were happy it wasn’t as bad for them.

Gabriella Machado was visiting from Gloucester, Massachusetts.

Machado says, “We were 100 feet away from it. It could have hit us, but it just went in this direct area.”

The storm continued east through Dennis into Harwich, where it brought down trees and power lines, leaving thousands without power.

Moore says, “You can’t do much about it unless you have a generator, which I don’t have. Couple people down the street have generators.”

Based on the level of damage, the National Weather Service is rating the tornado right at the top of the EF-1 classification on the Enhanced Fujita Scale with winds as high as 110 miles per hour.

Some of the damage was caused by the tornado. Other damage was from straight line winds.

Harwich Resident Louisa MacPherson says, “I was in awe of everything I was looking at. I could not believe the amount of trees that have fallen and cracked and split.”

Because one thunderstorm produced a tornado that touched down, then lifted off the ground, and touched down a second time, the official report from the National Weather Service does list two EF-1 tornado events.

There were no injuries or deaths reported as a result of these storms.

There is a shelter open at Dennis Yarmouth Regional High School for storm victims who need a place to go.