Shrewsbury
Historical Society
Established 1898
Mario - Fats - Caruso
1928 - 1993
Mario - Fats - Caruso
1928 - 1993
Photograph by Henry LaPrade near Lake Quinsigamund
1953 Worcester Tornado
June 9, 1953
The tornado originated at approximately 4:30 pm in Petersham, Massachusetts about 25 miles northwest of Worcester. At 4:45 pm, as the storm approached the western side of Worcester, enormous hailstones began to rain down. One person reported a hailstone at eleven inches in diameter. A fourteen-year-old boy delivering papers to the impact area saw the funnel, ran into a nearby house and told the people it was approaching.
Despite their scepticism, everyone took shelter in the cellar. Thankfully they survived, even though their house was destroyed. More than likely the great majority of the population did not see the funnel and consequently did not know that a tornado was approaching them. Many reported that with the darkening sky, rising wind and pelting rain they thought an intense summer thunderstorm was headed their way.
Many did not realize that this storm was different until a few seconds before impact when the scream of the tornado (generally described as sounding like a jet plane or locomotive) was audible. It was then that the air became filled with mud and debris - windows and trees began breaking and uprooting.
At approximately 5:08 pm, the tornado reached the Worcester city line. It had been travelling in a south-easterly direction developing near the Quabbin Reservoir. The tornado was moving at about 25 mph with a vortex of approximately one half mile in diameter. With the forward motion at one half mile per minute, passage of the vortex over a point in the middle of the path required a little over one minute. The velocity of the wind in the outer ring was extremely high (estimates of winds in comparable tornadoes go as high as 500 mph). [1]
The F4 tornado crossed into Shrewsbury along the northern side of Lake Quinsigamond. It cut a diagonal path across town doing severe damage to Maple Street and finally ending in the South Street section of town before moving through downtown Westborough where it curved northeast towards Southboro. Around the time it ended, at 5:45 pm, a tornado warning was issued, but by then it was too late. A separate F3 tornado also struck, around the same time as the warning, in the nearby communities of Sutton, Northbridge, Mendon, Bellingham, Franklin, Wrentham and Mansfield.
8 Hapgood Way, Shrewsbury, Massachusetts
Maple Street, Shrewsbury, Massachusetts
City Couple, Daughter Die In Tornado
SHREWSBURY, June 10 – An elderly Worcester couple and their daughter of Northboro were killed yesterday when the tornado struck their car on Route 20, near South Street, as they were bound for Worcester.
The car was lifted up by the winds and landed upside down.
Dead are:
THOMAS W. HOWE, 80, Worcester.
CECEILA (McGRAVEN) HOWE , 70, his wife.
MRS. RUTH C. CARLSON, 38, Northboro.
The victims were on their way home with another daughter, Harriet, of Worcester, who suffered minor injury and later was discharged after treatment at The Memorial Hospital, Worcester.
Route 9 Driver Is Eyewitness In Disaster
SHREWSBURY, June 10 - “I was driving along route nine, the Worcester Turnpike, when the storm hit.
At first I thought it was just a hail storm, the stones were as big as mothballs. So I pulled off the road near the Shrewsbury – Westborough line.”
“I saw trees falling then powerlines. Then a house, and across the street, another house, and a gasoline station.”
“I couldn’t see much, the rain was so hard. But when I got out, I saw another car on its back. A man and woman – apparently husband and wife were lying on the ground beside it. They were dead.”
Shrewsbury Lad Had A Taste Of CD Work
SHREWSBURY, June 10 – A 16-year-old, wearing a Civil Defense armband, and discovering his first disaster-wounded, said he practically fainted.
Marshall B. Lytle, a junior at Major Beale high school, said “Earlier, I thought the storm was letting up, and a friend of mine from Boston was thinking of starting for home during the lull.” The lull was the brief, momentary spot of quiet before the whirling winds swept into Shrewsbury.
“My mother and aunt were standing near a window and they spotted what looked like a dust storm near the road. Suddenly, my mother and aunt moved towards a door to see what was going on outside,” Marshall said, “and that’s when a large, heavy plank came whistling in through the window where they had been standing a moment ago.” [2]
This presentation by Paul Brueggemann is about the impact of the June 9, 1953 tornado to Shrewsbury Massachusetts. The project is a cumulation of approximately six months of research into photos, newspaper articles, and eyewitness interviews detailing the event.
Paul is a lifelong resident of Shrewsbury and a genealogist by trade. Including this project, Paul has researched several other topics for the Shrewsbury Historical Society website. Earlier projects include the origins of Dean Park in Shrewsbury, the 1930s Expansion of the Boston Turnpike and Shrewsbury’s Veteran Squares. [3]
(1) Anthony F. C. Wallace, An Exploratory Study of Individual and Community Behavior in an Extreme Situation (Publication 392, NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES - NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL, Washington, D. C. 1956)
(2) Articles from The Evening Gazette (THE EVENING GAZETTE, Worcester, MA, June 10, 1953)
(3) Paul Brueggemann, Devastation in Shrewsbury: The 1953 Tornado's Fury in Photographs (Youtube, 2025) youtu.be/OO5tpiko0IU