By George P. Hassett

The hail is the size of softballs. Debris flies everywhere. The aftermath devastates chicken farms and “slaps down” entire communities.

Those are the scenes Kerri Connolly, a 2002 Somerville High graduate, witnessed in the Midwest this Spring as a production assistant for the Discovery Channel show Storm Chasers.

Connolly left her apartment in Brooklyn to follow hurricanes and tornados from Nebraska to New Mexico earlier this year and got a quick crash course in meterology.

She said observing the aftermath of the storms she enthusiastically filmed was the most enlightening part of the job.

“To see lightening from one horizon to another was amazing. But what really got to me was walking around some of these small towns the next day. It really opened my eyes to how extreme weather is just a part of life in some parts of the country and so many people live at the mercy of Mother Nature,” she said.

Connolly said she saw trees “transplanted into living rooms” and tipped over cars littering the side of the road on her day after tours.

‚ÄúIt brings a new perspective. You don’t see that on the east coast,‚Äù she said. ‚ÄúIt was totally unlike anything I experienced in Boston, Somerville or New York.‚Äù

During the storms Connolly did not have much time for reflection as she drove   full speed ahead toward  the turmoil. In New Mexico, the Storm Chasers crew dodged softball sized hail that came crashing through the sun roof. In Nebraska they came a little too close to a ferocious storm and had to backtrack quickly.

However, the 5 foot 2 inch Connolly said the danger simply pushed her to “suck it up and do it again the next day.”

Connolly is now finished working on the show and looking for another exciting assignment (she said she would ‚Äúkill‚Äù to work on the Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch) but she will relive some of her experiences and watch her work when Storm Chasers premieres in October.