If you had told me the day after the June 1, 2011 tornado, as I walked around my neighborhood, the weather event would have an extraordinarily positive impact on the city of Springfield I would have been doubtful.

I live in a working class and working poor neighborhood one mile and a quarter away from City Hall. It is a neighborhood with a small park and an old school, the Brookings School.  Many of the sidewalks were still uneven brick. The roads were not in the best of shape.

Until ward representation was enacted, this was an area that was pretty much ignored by the city. I was president of the neighborhood council for a number of years and I can say there was only one city councilor who seemed to take an interest in the neighborhood.

The tornado brought great destruction to the neighborhood. As you may recall the tornado started in West Springfield. It crossed the river, swept through the South End, went up the hill to Maple High Six Corners – my neighborhood – and then headed to the neighborhoods off Island Pond Road. It then went east causing very serious damage to towns such as Monson.

You can still see its path with the new houses that were built to replace those destroyed as well as the young trees where no older trees exist.

Several days after the event, I sat on my front porch smoking a cigar and drinking a soda. I watched a conga line of cars slowly move up my little street with people holding their cameras out of car windows to record the destruction. I wanted to flip them off.

You see the tornado brought out the best and worst in people. There were many efforts to help people and that was heartening.

There were also people who acted selfishly.  A neighbor who had suffered no damage gladly accepted free food and water from the Red Cross. There were people standing at the edges of piles of debris from destroyed homes going through and stealing what they could.

Within a week of the storm, I was given a ticket from Code Enforcement because I had not cleaned up the substantial tree damage as fast as a neighbor would have liked. Mayor Domenic Sarno was driving by my house and asked how I was doing. I told him about the ticket and he took care of it. He had instructed Code Enforcement not to issue fines to people such as myself as we were struggling to get the clean-up completed.

I love my neighbors.

During the recovery, we saw just what federal government could do and refused to do. My wife and I  suffered through insurance companies that proved just how much they wanted to help – not much –  and contractors who wanted the money up front for necessary repairs.

It took us two years to find a contractor who would work with us. He was great. I had to hire an attorney who specialized in getting larger settlements from insurance companies to get us the money we deserved.

We got through it and we were luckier than others. We were able to stay in our home all during this period.

Ten years later, one could see that for this neighborhood the tornado was the best thing that happened to it. I know that is a terrible thing to say.

We now have a new Brookings School, which is a state-of-art facility. Whether or not we would have ever had a new school built is problematic.

We have improved sidewalks, more tree planting and road improvement. There are a bunch of new single family homes.

I sincerely believe none of these improvements would have taken place without the destruction caused by the tornado.

As we move forward there is still work to be done. The former Brookings School building is just now being transformed to a new and welcomed use: housing. The city is working on strengthening key infrastructure against devastating weather events.

Ten years later the tornado is still an influence. I will never forget what it did and how we are still trying to overcome it. I hope we have learned lessons about the importance of preparedness and community.