Tornado !!!
The last couple of weeks have been quite hectic around here. So let me see if I can catch up. Paul and I were scheduled for vacation the second full week in October with him arriving at the farm on Saturday October 10. Our plans were to work on the fencing and the barn. Those plans quickly changed on Friday afternoon, October 9 at 2:30 PM…. we were VERY close to a rare FALL TORNADO. Yes, most of them hit in the spring, but not this one. An F2 per the weather experts came through Casey county approximately 1/2 mile north of the farm. I was home alone and Alexis was at the Day Care. It had been raining on and off all day… all week for that matter. As I stood in the great room on our upper level I gazed out at the cloudy wet day… suddenly the wind picked up… the leaves flew by, the clouds above began swirling around in a counter clockwise direction… the wind got worse. I dashed down the back staircase and proceeded to gather the dogs to go into the office bathroom on the lower level. Three of them ran into the stairway when I opened the door. I stood in the entry way and heard strange noises. I heard the patio chair sliding down the cement porch. I heard a tin frog that decorated the outside wall hit the cement porch. The leaves and branches flew by… and then, just as suddenly as it has started …. it stopped. It was raining now.
The patio chair ended up about 50 feet behind the house up against the chain link fence of my garden. The garden swing was tipped over, the chain link fence on one side was bowed out. Trees were down everywhere… BIG ONES !!! I went into the house, the electric had gone off… but we still had phone service, miracle of miracles. I immediately called the Day Care… there was no answer. I called the neighbor, Mr. Emerson. He was fine and said he lost a storage shed and a box trailer he had for auto parts had tipped over. He owns and operates an auto body shop at his home. I told him I was OK. Then the Day Care returned my call and advised me that the kids were all fine and the tornado had gone right past them.
I called my boss and I called Paul. Paul left work immediately for his long drive to KY. I put on Paul’s high rubber boots and rain jacket and grabbed the camera.
I first surveyed the area around the house to make sure everything was OK…. another miracle had occurred. There was NO DAMAGE!!! The barn under construction was OK, the fence posts stood at attention in the pasture, the house was ok… the roof was fine, the porch was fine. One of the adirondack chairs on the porch had flipped over, they were both moved about 8 – 10 ft from their original location. It’s amazing that they did not go through the sliders or french doors.
I walked down the driveway to the road and found three very large trees, 6 – 8 in diameter large, down across the road and the creek.
Trees Blocking the Road
As I made my way over the barbed wire fence that surrounds the house, through the creek which by now was running at full speed, to the pasture on the other side… I found spare pieces of roofing from the house that were on the ground had been strewn across the yard and even in the creek. One piece was near the cow feeding area some 200 feet from it’s original location. In the creek was a beach chair, a bucket and a plastic container that were in front of the garage. They had traveled about 100 feet. I walked through the pasture and it was then that I found the trees down in our camping area.
I walked up the road and sure enough, there was a tree across the road. Not a large one and it was the only one. Trees on the north side of the road on the other side of the ditch on Mr. Douglas’s property were down and into his pasture.
Once up to the Emerson’s we watched as people frantically drove by. The road where the day care was and where the tornado had hit was closed and they were routing people by. 
Since the Emerson’s daughter worked at the Day Care I asked that she bring Alexis home and she did. We then walked back home where I carried her through the creek and to the house. We then prepared for a night with no electricity, bringing down the oil lamps and gathering flash lights.
The electric came back on around 1:30 AM. Paul arrived at 5 AM after parking the car near the downed trees and walking through the pasture and creek with a small flashlight. On Saturday, the clean up began. We worked for a short while picking up branches that were strewn on the driveway and around the house. Paul went to the shed and got his chain saw and other equipment. After a couple of hours I made the decision to call our friend Barry Russell of Russell Excavation. Barry arrived around 2Pm with a track hoe and went right to work.
After 4 hours and quick break for a sandwich he had cleared not only all the trees from the road, creek and camping area but also one very large one and some dead ones near the back side of that pasture. Well worth the price he charged.
