On Aug 12, 2004, an F1 tornado touched down in our fire district.  Below, you will see some of its handiwork.  We had a lot of help from our neighboring departments, Benhaven and Crains Creek.  Thanks.  Also, the community assisted with donations of lumber for repairs, plastic sheeting to seal out the elements, and a lot of patience.  The Red Cross sent out their Disaster Relief Assistance Team and stayed out there with us the entire time we were up and running.  When we shut down operations, we did so in preparation for the oncoming Hurricane Charley.  The Red Cross folks, however, left our location and headed to Florida to help down there if needed.  If you ever thought the Red Cross was not a worthy cause, you should have seen them in action out there.  Without their help, our job after the tornado would have been far more difficult.  Thanks Red Cross.  In the end, dozens of homes were damaged, 3 businesses were destroyed, 3 homes were destroyed, and 3 people were injured.

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The area we set up Ops.

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The media was there too.

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The Mobile Operations van.

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The Red Cross.

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Another shot.

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The law enforcement helicopter.

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which came out...

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to fly the damage route path...

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to survey the damage...

 

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They took pictures...

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and lots of notes...

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for the state.

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The Spout Springs Presbyterian Church was heavily damaged.

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One end of the building was destroyed.

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Debris was scattered all over the place.

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Luckily, no one was inside.

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The new Senior Citizen's Center.

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The building was recently completed.

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And is now condemned.

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The damage to the building....

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is irreparable.

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You can see the swirl pattern from the tornado in the wire grass.

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A shed was tossed over this house.

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And the car in the front yard.

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And the debris trailed into the wood line across the roadway.

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The remnants of a triple-wide...

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and a travel trailer...

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out on Marks Road.

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The home had two occupants at the time of the tornado...

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Both were injured...

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But later released from the hospital...

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The home was a complete loss though...

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As was a truck in the yard.

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Another angle of the truck.

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A house near the church...

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was turned into a streak of debris...

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The house was vacant, luckily.

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No one would have survived this...

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The debris trail was about 300' long.

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Another house, vacant, was destroyed.

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It was turned upside down and inside out.

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The backyard.

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Notice the motorcycle in the neighbor's driveway (left).  It never even fell over.

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A shed that got destroyed.

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Many trees were downed too.

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Several houses were damaged.

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And many porches too.

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This house had a piece of debris come flying through the house

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This house had the porch removed.

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Another damaged porch.

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Debris was everywhere.

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And yet another damaged porch.

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Probably a quarter of the houses in the area were damaged.

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The porch was the most susceptible.

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More downed trees.

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The roof is gone on this one.....

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and it was occupied.

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another angle...

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the neighbor's house...

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This was along the backside of Heritage Village.

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another angle.

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Vehicle and home heavily damaged.

 

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Someone's displaced shed, minus its roof.

 

More info is available here.

And still more can be seen here.