A tornado left a Fayette County home along U.S. Route 22 heavily damaged Thursday morning, according to reports from the National Weather Service and Fayette County Sheriff’s Office.
The National Weather Service in Wilmington confirmed, in the afternoon, that an EF1 tornado touched down east of Washington Court House at about 3:30 a.m. Thursday. Winds of 100 miles per hour were recorded as the tornado traveled for about 300 yards. The tornado damaged several structures, trees and crops, and snapped about a dozen power poles on Rowe-Ging Road.
“Last night we had a storm system that went through with winds that exceeded 60 miles per hour,” Mary Ann Kable, a DP&L spokesperson who was on-site Thursday in Fayette County to assess the damage, said. “In that area approximately 12 transmission poles were down. Those horizontal winds went through, so about 30 feet off the ground you could see where they were broken, where the strong winds snapped them. We had nearly 23,000 customers out at the height of the storm.”
Power was restored to 95 percent of customers Thursday, with the remaining five percent requiring more complex restoration that is being completed on Friday.
As the county spent the day Thursday removing debris from roadways and yards, one family on U.S. 22 was dealing with the aftermath as their home suffered a partially collapsed roof and busted windows, among other damage. The family of the home declined comment on Thursday, but a conversation with Fayette County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Tony Rose confirmed that they were safe.
“Everyone in the home is reportedly safe,” Rose said on Thursday morning at the scene. “Nobody was injured. There were some children in the home when it happened, but everyone inside is fine. There appears to be a lot of structural damage inside the home. So, right now, the homeowner has a building inspector looking at it before they re-enter the house. I have escorted the National Weather Service here. They are taking a look around at the damage patterns to assess if it was straight-line winds or any kind of rotation. We have had other minor damage, but this appears to be the biggest area of damage in the county.”
“It was quick, it just was,” a neighbor to the heavily damaged home, Dennis Murphy, said. “We got the alarm on our phone and I told my wife to get in the hallway. As soon as it had died down we came out to see what had happened and we had seen their house. We were more worried about their home and them inside than anything else. They had their two grand babies in there close to where the worst of it was. My ladder, saw…I had several things moved during the storm. Otherwise, we have a few pieces of vinyl siding which were damaged, but to me I am unscathed compared to (his neighbors).”
The other resident across the road dealt with her own fear as she was home alone when the tornado hit. She said the damage was fast, and within moments two structures behind the home, a garage and a shed, had fallen over on top of a kennel holding the occupant’s dog. When she was finally able to check on her dog, the kennel was flattened and she could not see her dog. Luckily, it was hiding out in the doghouse (also in the kennel) as the storm raged on. Despite the structures falling on top of the pet’s house, it remained sturdy and upright, protecting the dog from the weather.
