Tornado rips through Revere, Mass.; Boston area hit with severe storm

A tornado has ripped through Revere, Mass., north of Boston, an area that has been coping with severe weather Monday, the National Weather Service reported.

The weather service has sent meteorologists to survey storm damage in Revere, where local officials have reported road closures and flooding dangers. The assessment covers Suffolk County and Taunton, Mass.

“A tornado has been confirmed to have occurred in Revere, Massachusetts this morning,” reported the weather service in a posting on its website. “The damage assessment is still ongoing to determine additional details such as maximum tornado intensity ... along with the length and width of the damage path.”

The storms moved through the area beginning about 9 a.m. on Monday. Thunderstorms throughout the region had produced wind gusts of as much as 60 miles per hour and was dumping rain at a rate of more than 1.5 inches an hour.

“We’re pretty busy and can’t really talk,” a police dispatcher told the Los Angeles Times.

But in tweets, the agency and the State Police warned motorists to stay away from the area because of road closures, flooding and downed trees.

The area north of Boston, including Lawrence and Gloucester, was under a flash-flood warning, according to the weather service. The storms also prompted flood warnings in New Hampshire.

Parts of Massachusetts, including areas north of Boston, were coping with severe storms that created a danger of flooding after a weekend of storms raked portions of the United States, officials said Monday.

According to the weather service, severe storms have rested like a crown across the northern portion of the United States for the past several days, bringing strong rains and the possibility of tornadoes to a region from Minnesota across the Midwest through upstate New York into Massachusetts and parts of New England.

Parts of Georgia and the Carolinas were also facing severe and dangerous storms Monday after a separate storm system plagued the region over the weekend, the service said.

The weekend weather slammed states from New Hampshire to North Carolina along with parts of the Midwest. Six tornadoes were reported, roads closed and power lines were downed. At its peak, more than 200,000 customers were left without power Sunday and thousands of flights were canceled or delayed.

On Sunday, at least 10 homes were destroyed in Tennessee. At least seven of 36 counties in the eastern portion of the state were hit by severe weather, state officials said.

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