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We take care of our own
Montana Phipps was supposed to go out for a run with a friend after school, but the dark storm clouds squelched their plans. So on June 1, she was in her bedroom at the end of Stewart Avenue, with a view across her neighborhood of wide lawns, hedges, and leafy trees in Monson, a town of some 8500 people nestled in a valley about two hours' drive west of Boston.

Montana Phipps was supposed to go out for a run with a friend after school, but the dark storm clouds squelched their plans. So on June 1, she was in her bedroom at the end of Stewart Avenue, with a view across her neighborhood of wide lawns, hedges, and leafy trees in Monson, a town of some 8500 people nestled in a valley about two hours' drive west of Boston. Her grandmother called with tornado warnings. A friend texted alerts.

"I looked out my window and saw the tornado in the distance. It was big and dark, like a monster," the 14-year-old tells me. "We had like two minutes to get in the basement. I got my [two older] sisters into the basement and pushed my dogs in and I held onto a pole for my life. I could hear the trees breaking and glass shattering and the house move. So I look up and I see insulation everywhere and I see the house getting lifted up. I was thinking I was going to die. I didn't think I was going to see the next day."

The red, three-story house slid back from its foundation several feet and collapsed backward, splintering to bits, and in places tumbling down upon itself and into the cellar. Then the tornado was gone. Montana and her sisters called their mom and dad at work, yelling into their cell phones because the tornado had temporarily shot their hearing. As their parents raced home, the teens called 911. Within minutes, three neighbors arrived to help them climb from behind a broken chimney and out of the now-exposed cellar. There was lightning, and people glancing up worried another tornado would hit. Houses were smashed. Trees and live powerlines were down everywhere. But the teens were unscathed.

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