Tornado Rips Through Webster, Causing Damage And Power Outages

A tornado touched down in Webster on Saturday morning, causing damage to buildings and injuring at least one person, officials said.

The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for southeastern Worcester and south central Middlesex counties Saturday that expired at 10:45 a.m.

More than 4,250 Worcester County residents were without power after the storm, following up to two inches of rain in 30 minutes.

One person was also reportedly injured during the storm. Webster police say a woman was driving when a piece of debris hit her car during the storm. She was transported to a hospital with injuries that are not life-threatening.

Town Administrator Doug Willardson said two of the town's buildings suffered so much damage that they will need to be torn down.

"We're just glad everyone is OK," Willardson said. "Different resources have been made available to us. The lieutenant governor reached out to us, [Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency] is here, the Red Cross, National Grid, local agencies —  so things are going very well."

Webster Dunkin' Donuts employee Asaya Hardman said conditions outside the store were like a tornado.

"The tree across the street went down too," Hardman said. "Where the bus stop is — it blocked the whole street off and I think down the street too. A lot of things happened on Main Street today."

Also on Main Street, McDonalds manager Rafel Perez said conditions were so bad that he couldn't open the drive-through door.

"[It] was really bad," he said. "All our systems went down and left us kind of helpless."

The National Weather Service said it expected strong to severe thunderstorms with heavy wind gusts to continue as showers moved eastward.

The weather service confirmed the storm on Twitter, and said that it would continue to survey damage and determine the strength and length of the tornado's path.