A high powered tornado sailed through the south eastern fields heading toward Windsor Colorado on May 22, 2008.
Devastation certainly touched this community. Stan and I took a drive to Windsor for an afternoon of polka dancing at the American Legion in the old part of Windsor’s downtown on Sunday June 1st.
A little over a week after the tornado, aftermath of the damage was apparent from Greeley at the Promontory intersection by the large State Farm office of Highway 34 to the 10th Ave business highway on the western outskirts of Greeley to the Windsor downtown, tornado damage to property and landscaping was apparent.
A dump site at the edge of town was set up for the mounds of tree damage. We saw a pick-up hauling an open bed fenced trailer pulling another trailer packed with youngsters who were spending their Sunday afternoon cleaning up limbs and trees for the community.
We drove down the old missile site road to see trees stripped of branches and new spring leaves and the ripped up dairy farm. A tremendous amount of work has been completed to clean up the areas since the storm. Windows are boarded up and much of trash has been hauled off. We saw a few cars caught in the storm with windows blown out. A few by the Allstate insurance office downtown looked like they had crashed through the storm and were thrown in front of the office. The office was untouched, but 3 cars had sustained considerable damage.
The storm was relentless in its path. After crossing the farm area it hit the east outskirts of downtown Windsor through a business and a residential community. At the edge of the subdivision, windows were boarded with the structures in place and some were blown away like candles on a cake. It was like a ghost town. The community has really stepped up to put the place back together. One of the damaged homes had painted a message on the boarded up garage – Thanks Windsor.
We talked to a lady at the dance whose friend was in one of those homes. She was lucky, as only a couple of windows were blown out. She was staying with her sister in Fort Collins while she waited for the OK to have the windows fixed and move back in. Some business were not so lucky. The windows and doorway of the Severance museum just one block from the American Legion was blown away as were the insides. Only the new brick building stayed in tack.
The granary or factory (not sure what is was) lost about 50% of the bricks on the tallest part of the building. There was evidence that people were stacking the fallen bricks.
Count your blessings and help others when the time comes. You never know what life has in store for you each day.
Here are some notes forwarded to me from a My Uncle Daryle:
Many of you have called to inquire about what has been going on out here weather wise – as CNN had huge coverage yesterday of this area of the Colorado. Ironically, Weld County has some of the highest incidence of tornados in the country but they are generally baby (less than F-1) or nominal twisters, with little damage. This maybe the first F 3-4 ever to hit the front range in history of weather according to news casters.
The tornado just west of Greeley and going through part of newly incorporated Greeley (where State Farm reg. offices and ConAgra/Swift offices are located at Promontory Point) was at least a mile wide. Steve and Ingrid’s home is just SE about 2 miles of Promontory – and the storm traveled from SE to NW (very unusual – even in this country). Ingrid was away from the house – heard about bad weather and was rushing home to get a young 13 yr old lad into the house that was doing some yard work for them. As she came up the hill on 83rd Ave about 1/2 mile from home she noted a huge black cloud on/near the ground near their home.
She did not recognize it for a tornado, as many others didn’t either, because of its immense size. She could not enter the gated driveway because power was out by then; so she jumped out of pickup and over fence and ran up driveway to house (she then noticed huge rotation in black cloud near and west of house, but still didn’t grasp what was going on because of its size), in fierce wind and hail. When she got in house the young boy was already in and said I think it is a tornado – they looked out west windows and downhill and it was much more obvious as it now appeared completely on the ground and she soon realized that two homes and two barns across the section to the West were completely gone.
I went out there later in the afternoon (as I had some minor eye surgery earlier in the morning) – and it was apparent as we drove through the fields west of the house that the edge of the twister was only about 1/3rd mile from the house. Huge transmission power line poles ½ mile from their house were twisted up like corkscrews. The 2 neighbor’s (to west) homes, barns and most outbuildings were all gone – with another nice home and large machine barn (Steve’s Uncle) badly damaged about ½ mile North. The Lundvall family owns about 3200 acres of farmland on the edge (now incorporated into) of Greeley – the path of the tornado was mostly S/N slightly West through 3 miles of their land.
Two different sets of improvements were destroyed for most part – crops ripped out of the ground ½ to 1 mile wide, at least 8 large pivot sprinklers destroyed – fields full of trash (debris of metal & plastic, carpet by the ton, some 4 wheel equipment from several miles away, etc.) & tons of large cottonwoods along draws and Greeley Loveland Ditch are blown down and shredded, electrical irrigation panels and fuse boxes destroyed, etc. Steve’s dad’s home about a mile north of above had minor damage to roof and 8 large trees knocked down.
From there it crossed Hwy 34 and continued into Promontory where State Farm took a big hit and Swift lost the roof to their corporate offices – from there into Missile Silo Park where the fatality occurred and from there into Windsor (about 7-8 miles NW of Greeley, where most CNN reporting was from) and on towards Fort Collins and Wellington.
It appears to have been on the ground continuously for 35 plus miles – then redeveloped as the storm entered Laramie, WY to the NW about one hour later. While there were numerous other sightings (perhaps 5 or 6 in area) – this one seemed to be the “biggy” and created the majority of damage.
Looking at the damage, one is amazed that there were not more fatalities. When Ingrid and a friend drove up to their neighbor’s house to west to inquire if everybody was ok – they noted him exiting debris of what was left of the house with things in his arms (salvaging). He said everyone was OK – they were all in basement when it hit – their two dogs and three horses were gone.
There is not one piece of lumber left of the barn – not even the plate on the concrete; but the trailer with snowmobiles was sitting there as if not touched, but a large boat and trailer was overturned. All had been in the barn as well as livestock.
If you noticed the interview with a dairyman name of Rick Hertzke; (400 cow dairy – they lost a lot of cows and calves and said they would not rebuild) – he is a fella I have played senior softball (all-tournament type player)with for several years. They obviously won’t rebuild because they are in the city growth path and their land is under contract to a developer. Just thought I would give you a little personal insight into this regional nightmare for a good number of folks.
Dr. Roy E. Friesen, Broker
REFCO Realty, Inc.
2103 28th Avenue
Greeley, CO 80634-6514
royrefco@comcast.net