Like most Western Massachusetts residents, Hampden County Register of Deeds Donald E. Ashe was caught wholly by surprise when a tornado ripped through Downtown Springfield, damaging his registry office and injuring a number of his employees.

But even as life came to a standstill for Ashe and thousands of Hampden County residents affected by the severe weather, the business of Hampden County went on.

Normally closed on Thursdays, an announcement on Hampden County registry’s website proclaimed that the registry’s satellite office in Westfield would be opened for duty Thursday afternoon. And it’s a good thing, Ashe said, as business was brisk.

"It was quite busy," Ashe told Banker & Tradesman of the traffic in the Westfield office. "It tells us that people do go on the internet. Some of the regulars were at the Westfield office bright and early. Word got out, and people could see that the Springfield office would be closed. It was a busy day in general. The majority of people that came in today were the closing attorneys, and some people were coming in to do a little research."

Douglas Brunner, a real estate attorney whose office is located on State Street in Springfield, said the inability to walk across the street from his office, as he usually does, to do business at the registry would not deter him. He planned to visit the Westfield office today to file an important commercial closing.

"It’s a big commercial deal out of Boston," Brunner said. "They want their money."

Ashe said the Springfield office would likely be closed Friday as well, as repairs were scheduled to be made to blown-out windows at the Springfield Hall of Justice, where the Registry of Deeds is housed. He said debris should be cleared over the weekend, and anticipated business as usual by the start of next week.

The decision to close the Springfield registry office was made late Wednesday night, Ashe said, after the tornado struck around 4:30 Wednesday afternoon. He said a number of registry employees had just left the office when the whirlwind struck, blowing windows out of cars and nearby buildings and knocking a number of folks off their feet. Several employees were cut by flying glass, Ashe said, and were unable to make it to work today.

Still, Ashe said his staff tried their best to assume a "business as usual" air. Both the Westfield and Springfield offices use identical programs, so filing in one location versus the other is immaterial.

"You couldn’t tell the difference whether a deed was recorded in Springfield or Westfield," Ashe said. "Everything’s in live time, and it goes right into the system."

In many ways, Ashe said, this latest hiccup is no different from the contingency plans put in place to deal with other, more common service interruptions caused by severe winter weather. The system used to notify employees and the public of changes, both by telephone and internet, worked as advertised.

"We do have a system, whether it’s with snowstorms, etc., where everyone is kept abreast of what’s going on, information is put on the internet, and within a short time everyone is notified," he said

Officials counted $6,000 in fees and closing costs in Westfield, but said there were many more transactions that they didn’t have time to log.

It was definitely busier than normal, said Kelly Cavanaugh-Kelly, assistant register of deeds at the Westfield office.

"I had people coming in for the first time from Springfield that never use this office," she said.