For one Revere High School art teacher, a routine Monday morning became a remarkable experience when she had to evacuate her students to the school’s library — but not before capturing stunning video of the coastal city’s first tornado in at least 60 years.
“Oh, it was crazy,” said Joanne McKenna. “We had no idea it was a tornado, but I’ve never seen anything like it. The trees were crumbling in front of our eyes.”
McKenna was on the third floor of Revere High School on School Street when the tornado swept through the parking lot, prompting her to record the mayhem with her phone.
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“The kids were really afraid,” McKenna said, “so I showed them how to count how many miles away [the storm] was ... and when I looked out the window, it was really, really dark and fog moved through the parking lot. ... I’ve never seen anything like it, it looks really eerie.”
The students were at the school for a summer program, McKenna said. Despite the students’ fear, McKenna said she didn’t feel unsafe until some janitors came to tell her they were being evacuated to the library on the first floor.
McKenna said the school and her car suffered in the storm, but her home did not.
“Ceiling tiles fell in. A couple of windows broke in,” she said of the school. “Just on one side of the high school we lost 12 big maples and evergreen trees.”
McKenna said three of her car’s windows were broken and that it had “severe damage and little nicks all over it.”
Kiera Blessing can be reached at kiera.blessing@globe.com.