Storm inflicts damage throughout county
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With the count inching higher by the day, Warren County Emergency Management Agency Director Richard Myers said about 40 homes suffered damage from the late-afternoon storm.
“There were about 30 to 40 residences with some degree of damage,” Myers said. “We’re still receiving reports and if anyone has damage they need to call us at 473-8446 to let us know.”
Myers said there was also one person treated and released at River Park Hospital who was hit by flying debris. There were no serious injuries.
Myers said the National Weather Service has concluded straight-line winds were the likely culprit, although some people did say they thought they saw a funnel cloud just south of Gath. While damage was reported all over the county, the heaviest toll was in the northern section, ranging from Centertown to Dibrell.
Sustained wind gusts of 50 to 60 mph, as recorded by the NWS, were enough to cause the damage left by the storm, Myers said. Almost all of the damage was due to falling trees and limbs.
One of the hardest hit homes was that of County Commissioner Wayne Pryor on Cooper Drive in the Rolling Hills area as huge oak trees toppled like dominos with some landing on his home, narrowly missing him.
“We’d just pulled back into the driveway when it came,” Pryor said, pointing to a 100-foot oak tree which still rested across his roof. “The next thing I know the tree had landed on the top of the house and had reached across to the other side and hit the top of the car I was in. It all happened in seconds. There’s something to be said about stately oak trees, but in this case they were pretty dangerous.”
On Pigeon Hill Road in Centertown, Frank Bond had his garage leveled by high winds. The garage, which featured a double-thick wall of concrete block and brick, had only been finished about six months.
“I’m just glad we weren’t in there,” said Bond, who had been in the garage listening to the jukebox with his grandson five minutes before the storm hit. “We were in the house, but it still blew the window out in the living room.”
Bond had a number of items in his garage, including a 1929 Chevrolet and a restored 1984 Chevy pick-up. He is still awaiting word from his insurance agent to determine the extent of the vehicle damage. Showing the force of the wind, 45-pound blocks from Bond’s garage were swept over 200 feet into his sugarcane field.
Among the disaster, community support was high. Pryor said several neighbors and volunteers rushed to his house to help clear the debris from the numerous fallen oaks in his yard. The same was true across the county, Myers added, saying volunteers pitched in with the road department to help clear the numerous roads blocked by fallen trees.
“If you had a chainsaw, you were a pretty popular person,” Myers said.