Community Corner

Storms Cause Tornado Warnings, Flash Flooding for Peabody

The National Weather Service finally lowered all tornado warnings for Massachusetts Monday afternoon after the storms blew off shore.

The National Weather Service finally lowered all tornado warnings issued Monday afternoon for Massachusetts, including the Peabody area, by 4:30 p.m. after about two hours of putting residents on high alert to dash into their basements.

Multiple warnings were issued, starting shortly after 2 p.m. as weather forecasters said bad storms moving across the area were capable of producing tornadoes.

Storm patterns rapidly rotated through the North Shore at 25 mph, with the last alert coming around 4 p.m. as a storm again passed through Peabody and Salem and moved in a northeast direction.

Trained weather spotters did report seeing what they thought was a funnel cloud near Danvers just before 3 p.m., but according to news reports, the weather service said the funnel cloud had attempted to form, but broke up.

Another possible funnel cloud was spotted in the area of South Peabody and Salem at approximately 4 p.m., but it did not touch down or cause damage.

Emergency management officials urged anyone in the path of the storm to go to a basement or interior room on the lowest floor of a sturdy building and stay away from windows while the warnings were in effect.

People in vehicles or outdoors were urged to get to the closest shelter.

And if that wasn't enough to deal with, sudden downpours due to the storm led to flash flooding in certain areas Monday afternoon.

Significant flooding was reported in Peabody along Walnut Street, which was shut down to traffic shortly before 5 p.m., and along Route 114.


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