I know that my alma mater is safe from today’s tornado in Western Massachusetts, but I wonder how the Smith & Wesson facilities are doing. I learned to shoot on their range. We got home late, so I am not completely up-to-speed on what happened and where. If anyone has any reports from up there, I’d love to hear them.
11 thoughts on “Western Mass. Tornado”
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I heard it hit Western PA, not the central part.
Smith & Wesson is in Springfield – like very near downtown Springfield. I’ve actually never been to the plant, but I used to shoot at the range all the time in college.
http://www.weerdworld.com/2011/hairy-weather/
Some footage of the funnel and the damage.
No idea if S&W took any damage, I’m sure they’re shut down right now, most of the city is without power.
I’m worried about the Springfield Armory Museum on the Springfield Technical CC campus — lots of irreplaceable stuff there.
I’ve been watching Boston channels, and checked the Springfield newspaper and haven’t seen any mention of either, so I’m assuming they’re okay.
Which school did you go to?
Julie Golob, Captain, Team Smith & Wesson, posted a link to a news story regarding the tornado hitting Springfield, MA on her Facebook wall yesterday.
A Smith & Wesson staff member posted a comment stating: “It didn’t hit the factory at all. Just hope everyone got home safely. Took me a few hours and a major detour, but safe”.
hey everyone check out masslive.com it probably has all the answers your looking for
Wow, checking out the local news source. I never would have thought! It’s not like I wasn’t checking it out last night and this morning. By the morning, I figured nothing happened to the facilities, but last night was apparently tough for people to get around with downed trees & power lines blocking roads. Which I why I figured I would do something really nuts and ASK people who might know.
My CEO buddy there (grandpa was a shooter for S&W) said he could have fired a round into the debris cloud as it passed his house – he’s on a generator for now.
Crazy!
“My tornado is bigger than your tornado”….
Seriously, if anyone’s interested in Joplin, Missouri, just ask.
Relevant to this blog, three gun stores got completely trashed. The Wal-Mart’s guns would have been completely inaccessible, not to mention in an immediate rescue site (three patrons died, no employees; as these things go, one of many near miracles). At Academy Sports (closer to the EF5 core) employees were able to quickly secure the store. The other was in the middle of town and according a the story my father heard from good friend its guns ended up about a block away.
The owner went searching for them shortly after the tornado had passed and found them a block away, along with a loser who had already picked up about armload. He inquired about the provenance of the guns and the loser responded with a belligerent version of “finders keepers”. The store owner was of course armed and replied “If you don’t drop those guns I’m going to blow a hole in your head.”
Unnoticed, a policeman had come up behind the gun owner and underlined the message saying “And he doesn’t blow a hole in your head, I will.”
Loser drops the guns and exits posthaste.
I do rather like the town I was born and raised in and have now retired to.