The Springfield, Mass., offices of Balboni Associates, a public relations and consulting firm with decades of experience in the equipment rental industry, was destroyed by a tornado this week. None of the Balboni staff was injured.
“Fortunately my employees left about half an hour early to be safe,” Balboni CEO Lucy Peterson told RER. “I was the only one in the office when the funnel slammed into the south end of downtown Springfield. The windows started to shatter inwards and I had only a few seconds to get under the strongest nearby structure, a hardwood work counter. The ceiling fell, the roof blew off and the brick walls literally peeled off the structural skeleton of the building. When the wind died down and I was able to extricate myself, I stood up and there was sky ahead of me and above me, like a surreal mountaintop.”
Balboni is set up and already functioning in a temporary space after having worked in the same office building since 1985.
