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 The National Weather Service said a tornado touched down during a
storm that brought heavy rains, lightning and flooding to Boston,
Massachusetts, and many of its northern suburbs on Monday.
"Obviously we had a monumental storm come through our city early
this morning," Revere Mayor Daniel Rizzo told reporters. "There's
widespread damage, downed power lines, telephone poles, a lot of
public buildings and homes that have been damaged."
State emergency management officials said they were not aware of
major injuries or fatalities from the storm.
Revere police reported extensive damage to homes and trees after the
violent weather. Rizzo wrote on Twitter that officials would be
arranging a relief fund on Tuesday.
Boston and cities to its northeast reported extensive street
flooding from the storm, which dropped rain at the rate of 1.5 to 2
inches (3.8 to 5 cm) per hour, the National Weather Service said.
The Boston Globe newspaper cited an official with National Grid as
saying that 500 homes were still without power as of late on Monday
evening. The newspaper also reported that the tornado damaged more
than 100 homes.
The weather across the region and across the U.S. was forecast to
cooperate with clean-up efforts on Tuesday, said National Weather
Service meteorologist Rich Thompson.
"In terms of severe storms, it doesn't look like there is much of a
threat anywhere today," Thompson said. "We are continuing on the
slow, downhill slide."
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Live television video showed multiple buildings with roofs or walls
partly pulled off and downed trees and branches throughout the city.
Rizzo said many windows and doors had been blown out at City Hall,
prompting an evacuation of that building, which he said is not
likely to be safe to reoccupy for several days.
Tornadoes are uncommon in Massachusetts, although a large spate of
storms in June 2011 badly damaged downtown Springfield, in the
central part of the state, killing three people.
At least two twisters briefly touched down near Denver International
Airport late on Monday afternoon, though there were no reports of
damage, Thompson said.
Passengers were told to seek shelter for about 30 minutes, the
airport said on Twitter.
(Reporting by Scott Malone in Boston; Additional reporting by Eric
M. Johnson; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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