'It came right through my front yard': Tornado hits RI

Editor's Note: For our latest reporting read 'What was it like inside the RI tornado? Residents share their stories.'

National Weather Service confirms tornado in Rhode Island - strongest since 1986

After surveying damage, the National Weather Service Boston confirmed Friday afternoon that an EF-2 tornado touched down in Rhode Island earlier that morning.

According to the NWS, the tornado followed a "discontinuous path" through Scituate, Johnson and North Providence. The tornado touched down in Scituate first, on Byron Randall Road, where it uprooted or snapped "hundreds of trees" and caused damaged consisted with an EF-2 tornado with winds around 115 mph.

The tornado then crossed I-295 – picking up a car into the air and dropping it back onto the highway – and tracked into Johnston on Bridle Way and Carriage Way before traveling to Highland Memorial Park Cemetery, the NWS reported, causing damage consistent with an EF-1 tornado at 100 mph wind speeds.

After blowing through Johnston, the tornado traveled into North Providence, the NWS found, north of Mineral Spring Avenue, causing damage in the Lydia Avenue, Armand Drive and Bennett Street region consistent with an EF-1 tornado.

At its height, the tornado is the strongest to touch down in Rhode Island since the Aug. 7, 1986 tornado in Providence and Cranston, according to the NWS.

National Weather Service confirms tornado nearby in Massachusetts

The National Weather Service Boston confirmed Friday afternoon that a tornado touched down between North Attleborough and Mansfield, but were still surveying the damage and did not give an EF rating or length of the storm's path.

Tornado alerts and sirens alerted residents to the danger

The National Weather Service alerted Rhode Islanders to the threat of a potential tornado on Friday morning by sending out a code red text alert.

In Providence, an alert notified recipients that a tornado warning was in effect until 9:15 a.m.

"Take shelter now in a basement or an interior room on the lowest floor of a sturdy building. If you are outdoors, in a mobile home, or in a vehicle, move to the closest substantial shelter and protect yourself from flying debris," said the warning.

"Check media," it said.

Armand Randolph, chief of the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency's recovery branch, confirmed that the RIEMA had not sent the code red alert.

RIEMA has the ability to send such alerts, he said, but it did not send one on Friday. Emergency management agencies in Rhode Island cities and towns can also send a code red alert, he said.

A spokeswoman for Providence Mayor Brett Smiley, Patricia Soccaras, confirmed that the city did not send out a code red.

Tornado sirens were heard in Providence Friday. The sirens were activated by Brown University, not Providence, Soccaras said.

Communications were posted on social media asking residents to avoid flooded streets and to report any street flooding by dialing 311, Soccaras said.

Friday morning's weather, she said, brought flooding to the intersection at Gano and  Wickendon Streets.

Johnston residents begin to clean up cemetery

The “Graceland” area of Highland Memorial Park Cemetery in Johnston was once again a peaceful place late Friday morning hours after a suspected tornado ripped across the grassy plain. It broke apart tree trunks more quickly than a chainsaw and also severed the staff of its American flag. Diane Ames, 62, of Johnston picked it up and propped against the sign.

Ames sadly evaluated the panorama of destruction in the cemetery, which brought her to tears. “This place holds a lot of personal memories for me,” she said.

As a child she had hiked and picked blueberries in the area. As a teen, she learned to drive in the cemetery and she later taught her own daughter to drive there. Ames said her grandfather, Ernest Degidio, grew up near the cemetery and had dug the first grave in cemetery. He is buried near Mitchell Pond.

Most large power outages around Rhode Island resolved

As of 1:20 p.m., about 300 Rhode Island Energy customers were still without power after Friday's storms and suspected tornado. The largest outage, impacting 247 customers, was in North Providence, with some smaller outages around Johnston and Scituate. There were also a handful of isolated outages around the state impacting fewer than 5 customers each.

In Scituate, felled trees and roofs ripped off by suspected tornado

Before tearing through Johnston, the suspected tornado caused severe damage in Scituate.

Richard O'Neill was in his house with wife and two kids when he said the storm hit and ripped the roof off his house.

Devin O’Leary, 38, of Byron Randall Rd., started the clean up after a suspected tornado plowed through the neighborhood, tearing the roof off a neighbor’s house and dropping a tree in his pool.

“It lasted like 30 seconds,” he said as he, his mother and his three sons huddled in the basement. “We were lucky.”

The storms dropped into a hollow along Byron Randall Road in Scituate ripping off the tops of trees as it went.

John Gostanian, of Byron Randall Road, watched the storm’s arrival out the picture window of his home, not knowing there had been a tornado warning. Afterwards he said he took 30 trees down in his yard in the last decade as a precaution “against just this.”

Damage reported near Highland Memorial Park in Johnston

Near Highland Memorial Park in Johnston, a suspected tornado dislodged a trailered 24-foot boat – the Hanna Rose – from its spot in front of RI Tire & Service on George Waterman Road in Johnston. The boat rolled across Amber Street and crashed into the trunk and low-hanging branches of a large tree in the yard of a residence. The tornado tore through trees and downed lines along Amber Street.

Highland Memorial Park Cemetery is nestled atop a plateau in the Centerdale section of Johnston. The heights descend steeply to lower lying areas along George Waterman Avenue and the banks of the Woonasquatucket River.

The hilltop park and cemetery was a vast area of destruction Friday morning — testament to the power of nature.Large trees to the west of the grassy cemetery were sheared, marking the tornado’s eastward path. It left countless branches, large and small’ in its wake. It had also felled several large trees by snapping them right at the trunk just feet  from the ground.

The tornado sequentially uprooted one large oak and an enormous evergreen in Johnston Memorial Park Cemetery.

11:30 a.m.: Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency surveying damage in Scituate

Marc Pappas, director of the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency, told The Journal while surveying damage along Byron Randall Road that his team of inspectors should be able to confirm by the end of the day whether the damage was caused by a tornado.

Powerful wind knocked over trees in North Providence after the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning and a severe thunderstorm warning Friday morning.

A tornado was confirmed over Johnston at 8:40 a.m., and moving northeast at 30 mph., the weather service said earlier.

"Take cover now," the weather service said.

10:30 a.m.: North Providence resident says he saw tornado moving east

Dino Florez, 61, who lives with his wife in a home on Fitzhugh Street in North Providence, said he saw a defined tornado twist down the street moving east.

“It came right through my front yard. We were on the back in the patio,” said Roberta Coccia, 76, who added that the twister damaged her roof and gutters on her Douglas Avenue home.

“I swore it was going to snap my trees in half,” Coccia said.

9:15 a.m.: Tornado warning lifted for RI

The warning has now been lifted.

The tornado warning included Providence, Pawtucket, and Attleboro and is in effect until 9:15 a.m., the weather service said on Twitter.

Reports on social media also depicted damage in Scituate and Johnston.

Storms later moved into Massachusetts.

1:00 p.m. Thursday: Weather service warns of powerful thunderstorms, flooding

On Thursday, the weather service said powerful thunderstorms were possible overnight Thursday into Friday with potential for flooding.

It's part of the locally severe weather "that will erupt" from the Great Lakes to the Northeast as a cool front sweeps across part of the country, according to AccuWeather. The storms will be triggered along the leading edge of the cool air, AccuWeather said.

"Scattered showers and thunderstorms overspread the region Thursday night into Friday," the weather service said in its local forecast discussion. "A few severe storms are possible with strong winds and flash flooding."

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On AccuWeather's website, meteorologist Brandon Buckingham said, "Yet another round of drenching and gusty thunderstorms are in store across the Northeast Thursday night and Friday as a powerful cool front sweeps through the region."

The Providence area could get more than an inch of rain from Thursday night through Friday. The wind could gust up to 21 mph in the Providence area Friday, the weather service said.

"The main hazards are damaging winds, large hail, and flash flooding, with a lower but still present risk of tornadoes," the weather service said on X, formerly Twitter.

The storms should move offshore by sunset Friday, leaving behind a "refreshing blast of cooler and drier air," the weather service says.

– With reports from Journal Staff Writer Mark Reynolds

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Trees knocked down after tornado touches down in Rhode Island