Last night my sister Sandy and her kids were over. Me, Walter, and Sandy were playing Scrabble in the dining room during a bad thunderstorm. The wind kicked up a good bit and we asked my niece to close the one window that was open about a foot so the wind wouldn't blow the rain in but she couldn't get it shut. As she was fiddling with it we felt the whole house shake and Walter and I jumped up and he yelled, "Get to the basement!" and we all scrambled down there. There was water pouring in from under the basement door, which was weird because that generally does not leak. I called my mom who lives around 10 miles away to tell her to go in the bathroom if it gets out her way as she doesn't have a basement. This was at 8:39 according to the call log.
We were downstairs for about 10 minutes and it was quiet so we went back upstairs. The dining room had a gallon or two of water on the floor - thank God the other two windows weren't open and that one was only open a little! The back porch had a piece of siding on it that was blown in through a window and we could see siding all in the yard.
We went outside to look for damage and the siding was blown off the back of the house and was all over the yard, yet the trampoline, which was on the other side, was blown across the front yard and across the road and is stuck on some trees and all bent up. There is also a piece of insulation in the front yard.
It is interesting that some stuff was blown to the front of the house when the damage was on the back and blown the opposite way. That's one reason we think it was a small tornado.
The tree on the side of the house has a big limb torn off and the tree in the front has a bunch torn off. One of them barely missed my sister's car and wasn't far from Walter's truck.
The garage, shed, and barn were all fine, but then the machine shed had the roof torn off on the north side only. That's another reason we think it was a small tornado - if it was just high wind in general, how would it have skipped a whole bunch of stuff between the house and the machine shed, and why would only the north side of the roof only be gone?
There's a bunch of pictures in an album.
National weather service at 8:31, just 8 minutes before we were in the basement:
* AT 831 PM CDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM CAPABLE OF PRODUCING PENNY SIZE HAIL...AND DAMAGING WINDS IN EXCESS OF 60 MPH. THIS STORM WAS LOCATED NEAR FULTON...AND MOVING NORTHEAST AT 25 MPH.
* LOCATIONS IMPACTED INCLUDE... AUXVASSE... WILLIAMSBURG... SHAMROCK... MARTINSBURG... WELLSVILLE...
SPOTTERS HAVE REPORTED SOME ROTATION WITHIN THIS STORM. WHILE NOT IMMEDIATELY LIKELY...A TORNADO MAY STILL DEVELOP. IF A TORNADO IS SPOTTED...ACT QUICKLY AND MOVE TO A PLACE OF SAFETY IN A STURDY STRUCTURE...SUCH AS A BASEMENT OR SMALL INTERIOR ROOM.
Fulton is about 25 minutes west of us and Williamsburg is only about 5 minutes away.
I've seen on the news recently how people have been killed by tornadoes... thank God this was nothing much!