Long ago, he felt 'something was coming' Former officer recalls tornado that ravaged area 50 years ago today
By NATE HOPPER, Special to the Times Union First published in print: Thursday, June 24, 2010
The forecast for June 24, 1960, Ernest Townsend's last day on the job for the Rotterdam Police Department in the Schenectady Union-Star read:
"Warm and humid with showers and thunderstorms this afternoon and a high around 80 today. Occasional gusty winds..." Around 7:20 p.m., Townsend looked up from his normal evening duty of directing traffic outside Gabriel's Supermarket on Curry Road.
The sky was a strange orange and everything was incredibly quiet -- "so quiet I knew something was happening," Townsend, now 84, remembered a half-century later.
He'd heard the Weather Bureau in Albany had issued a warning for "damaging winds and possibly an isolated tornado" that evening. That was hard to believe, though -- twisters are rare around here. But with the sky, and the silence, he said, "I felt that something was coming right toward us."
He had to get everyone inside.
Townsend ushered anyone leaving the market back inside and ordered those on the street to hurry there too. He instructed them to get into a safe position: lie down or stand against a wall. They listened, although some grumbled he was overreacting.
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