Tornado damage reaches $1.6M
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‘This isn’t including outbuildings and barns where we saw some significant damage. So when you add that in, the price tag will be quite a bit higher,’ said Percy Phifer, director of Warren County Emergency Management Agency. ‘We’re still getting reports of damage as people are finding and reporting things that weren’t apparent immediately after the tornado.’
According to Phifer, the F1 tornado packing winds of over 100 mph which hit Warren County on the afternoon of April 11, damaged 75 homes, leaving nine of them total losses.
‘One good thing is that most people were insured,’ Phifer said of the damage, most of which is centered in residential areas near the airport.
The fact the majority of homeowners were insured does affect the possibility of disaster assistance. County Executive John Pelham announced at the commission meeting Monday night there will be no money from the state, even though the county has incurred significant expense with the cleanup.
‘Of the over 70 houses damaged, only one didn’t have insurance,’ Pelham said. ‘So that hurt us. TEMA said there just wasn’t enough loss to qualify for disaster assistance.’
The tornado had the longest path in recorded county history, staying intact for 15 miles, and running from near Centertown to Faulkner Springs.
‘We were fortunate the tornado was going up and down as it went across the county or the damage would have been much higher,’ said Phifer, noting tornadoes are highly unpredictable, taking one house while leaving one nearby without any damage. ‘You can’t explain a tornado as to their paths and why they hit one house and not the next one.’
The fact Warren County and a couple of unconnected counties were the only ones in the area hit by the storm also played against the chances of federal assistance since federal disaster declarations are usually for blocks of several counties or for areas which are more heavily damaged by disasters.