Clinton Tornado

Friends,

I setn the following e-mail back to Jaydee; however, I failed to send it out on Daffnet as I intended. News is now a bit old; however, here is what I sent to Jaydee:

From the personal side, we were not affected by the tornado.  We did have  heavy rain at our home on the north side of Clinton.  It suffered no damage other than a few lifted roofing shingles.  However, old home in Easthaven subdivision, where we lived for 24 years, was hammered with a big tree through the roof of the house and comparable damage to the rest of the neighborhood.  Fortunately, the elementary school directly across the street from our old house was missed by the tornado.  The school is about 200 – 300 feet from our old house and was in session with several hundred children present. 

I was preparing to teach my 11:00 a.m class at the college when all electrical power to the college campus was knocked out. Because of the tornado warning and subsequent tornado, all of the students, staff, and faculty in Hederman Science Building were huddled together on the ground floor until the all clear signal was given.  We did have some emergency lights on as the emergency generators did come on.

Apparently there were no deaths and only a few injuries in Clinton.  Things could really have been much worse; however, it appears the tornado was not on the ground very much, rather it appeared to stay aloft as evidenced by telephone/light poles being broken off at the top and the tops of many trees having been broken off as well.

Thanks for your concern.