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Storm Roared in, 'Then, Boom!': Winds Cause a Lot of Damage but No Injuries

Posted on: Tuesday, 4 April 2006, 12:01 CDT

By David Blackburn, Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.

Apr. 4--James Brown knew Sunday afternoon there was a thunderstorm warning for Daviess County.

"They didn't say nothing about damaging winds. Then, boom!" he said Monday.

The "boom" was an unsecured mobile home -- rolled by Sunday night's winds -- that slammed into Brown's Lamp Lite Estates trailer at 6932 Lamplite Circle, punching a hole in a bedroom.

"When it hit, it hit hard," Brown said Monday as daughter Kansas, 17, and son Aaron, 18, huddled under blankets in the home that was without power. "I've never seen it come in that fast."

Even Walter Atherton, deputy director of the Daviess County Emergency Management Agency, was surprised at how quickly the damaging storm system arrived.

One minute it seemed to be about 11/2 hours away, the next, "I went back to the radar and, my gosh, it was right on top of us," Atherton said.

The system barreled through at 65 mph, producing wind gusts up to an estimated 80 mph, Atherton said.

"Everything looks like straight-line winds ..., " he said.

Most of the damage from the southwesterly winds seemed to be in the eastern and northeastern areas of Owensboro and the county.

The flat lands on both sides of U.S. 60 East provides almost no wind break, Atherton said.

On Monday, it showed.

Brown's fellow Lamp Lite Estates residents had homes with sections of roofs and vinyl underpinnings missing and overturned portable basketball goals.

Brown, who took a week off from his job at Field Packing to deal with the damage, had a metal storage building relocated. A quarter-mile away, a fallen pine tree blocked most of Lamplite Circle.

At 721 W. Third St. in Owensboro, the north wall and a roof truss fell from a cinderblock warehouse used by Carpets Unlimited and Crandall Properties.

Jerry Simpson looks over damage to his 1995 Ford Econoline van Monday morning after it was crushed by an oak tree during Sunday's storm at the home of his wife, Cecilia Simpson, on River Road. The tree also damaged a car, a pickup truck and the roof of the house. Simpson said he had arrived at the home in another vehicle right as the wind hit. "It raised my truck about 4 feet off the ground," he said. "I thought it was going to flip me backward." Photo by Robert Bruck, M-I.

Ken Crandall, owner of both businesses, wasn't sure how it happened, but he suspects the wind got in, built up pressure and pushed out the wall.

"The dock doors were blown almost off," said Crandall, owner of both businesses. "It's a mess.

"The building is not very stable," Crandall said. He was unsure Monday afternoon if it was salvageable.

The 23,000-square-foot office complex of Crandall Properties at 416 W. Third St. also sustained some minor roof damage, Crandall said.

At 1621 Dean Ave., the damage was a bit worse for David and Sarah Purdy.

A large oak tree on a neighbor's property was uprooted and toppled onto the northwest corner of the Purdys' home.

The 60- to 80-foot tree toppled a pine tree and punched a hole into the Purdys' roof, tearing up an upstairs restroom, a roof joist and causing water damage, David Purdy said.

"My insurance agent told me it's got major structural damage," he said in a phone interview. He was in Chicago when the storm hit.

A crane will have to remove the tree before it can be cut up to avoid further damage, said David Purdy, who expects to replace the entire roof.

"We're going to take the furniture out of the house tomorrow," he said.

At the Daviess County Detention Center, winds blew some of the facade off the east side of the main building, slightly damaging a security fence.

There was no security risk and no damage to the roof itself, Jailer David Osborne said. But repairs will probably cost several thousand dollars, he said.

The U.S. 60 bypass that was closed from Kentucky 54 to U.S. 231 Sunday night was reopened about 6 a.m. Monday, the Daviess County Sheriff's Department said. Downed transmission lines had draped all four lanes and some vehicles.

Kenergy reported nearly 1,600 customers without electricity Sunday night, including 682 residents in Thruston, 194 in Stanley and 720 in West Daviess County.

By 7 a.m. Monday, about 100 customers were without power, the company said. Most were in eastern Daviess County and Hancock County.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.

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Source: Messenger-Inquirer

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