Tornado Anniversary

by Tom Shafer

June 1, 2019

So, I’m not sure what it means when your thirty-sixth wedding anniversary comes in like a lion, but that’s exactly what happened for my wife and me this past Monday evening into Tuesday morning. Those of you living in Dayton, Ohio, know that I am referencing the fifteen tornadoes that ravaged our region for a period of approximately three hours, ranging in magnitude from weak EF-0’s to a strong EF-4. The areas of Trotwood, North Dayton, Riverside, and Beavercreek were hit particularly hard, and will be digging out and cleaning up for months to come.

• 

Weather forecasts had predicted the possibility of strong, long duration tornadoes for that evening, but frequent warnings, like we experience here, have a tendency to numb us to that reality. I am so pleased that people heeded these warnings and took them seriously because based on the extensive, widespread damage, I would have expected more injuries and greater loss of life.

I was actually doing a little writing on my computer and wasn’t paying attention to the weather Monday evening. My first clue that something was happening was my sister-in-law’s frustration with preemption of the Stanley Cup (game one between the Boston Bruins and the St. Louis Blues). Local meteorologists were warning about strong thunderstorms entering the Miami Valley and that some of them were showing signs of rotation. Now, around here, weather is always news story number one, and our local television stations frequently break into regular programming with information that may or may not be necessary or relevant – which can frustrate hardcore viewers. I even understand that one of our weather anchors is now a national meme because of his reaction to the flack his station was receiving for preempting The Bachelorette (I suggest that these people get real lives – literally!).

Because I have always been a weather geek and have done a little storm chasing in the past, I closed my computer quickly and plopped myself in front of the TV to catch up with this developing story. By this time, one of the cells up north was suggesting a Doppler-indicated tornado, so I turned on my scanner to find a fire/EMS band for Mercer County to get better information. There, I learned that storm spotters were confirming the DIT, adding that it was a large, wedge-shaped tornado – and likely a strong one (eventually recorded as an EF-3). Shortly thereafter, another tornado was reported (and confirmed) in western Montgomery County, and at that point, I knew it was going to be a long night.

Scanner reports from both counties began conveying some very ominous news: broken power poles with downed wires, collapsed structures and homes, gas leaks, trees blocking roadways, and multiple injuries. Local news was sharing the same stories while its meteorologists tried to predict the pathways for these storms. Radar technology has been rapidly improving, and is now providing new products to aid with these predictions. Two of our meteorologists were using a product that can “see” debris signature, which might confirm that a radar-detected tornado is real and on the ground. Upon seeing this debris signature (and actually a large one at that), one of the meteorologists briefly became emotional and admitted later that she had never seen debris on radar before, and she knew then that we were witnessing a powerful and dangerous tornado.

More tornadoes began to spin up in different locales, and reporters were now reaching areas that had already been hit. The first images were stirring – stunning visual depictions of information that I had been hearing on the scanner. The scope and scale of the damage began to emerge then, and it was obvious that these were not little spin-up funnels like those that we experience here a few times a year. These were powerful tornadoes, and their tracks were being measured in miles and not yards.

Around 11:30, a storm that commenced in western Montgomery County began to turn southward as it entered my county (Greene), and its path indicated that it might come near my neighborhood. Over the next few minutes, scanner information and TV coverage confirmed that possibility, so we prepared our safe area (a double-reinforced washroom in the center of our house) with the hope that we would not need to use it. Intense lightning and heavy rain preceded the cell as it slogged closer to my home. As it did, I would step out onto our covered front porch, trying to catch a glimpse of the tornado during lightning flashes. I would then retreat to the television to see where the storm was tracking. Strong winds began to buffet the house, and the last time I stepped outside, a gust nearly doubled over the large maple in our front yard. Two more gusts hit with such force that they made the house shudder. Then, I heard it, the familiar rumble of a freight train bearing down, and that was followed by a rumbling of the ground. Though I couldn’t see the tornado, I could definitely hear it and feel it. I knew that it was close, but I could tell that it was going to pass just north of us.

• 

Within a few minutes, the winds, rain, and lightning subsided and I stepped back outside to survey the damage. Of course, the lighter objects (lawn furniture, potted plants) were tossed around the yard, and large limbs were scattered along the tree line of our woods. But, we had sustained no damage to the house and shed, and felt quite fortunate, especially after seeing all of the damage being reported across the area.

I watched continuing storm coverage until about 3 a.m., but I had no idea how bad things were in many parts of the Miami Valley until I started watching coverage at 7 a.m. that morning. Catastrophic damage was prevalent in many places, including along a line that stretched from Trotwood in western Montgomery County to the road just north of my neighborhood (a confirmed EF-3 tornado). After eating and dressing, I wandered outside to get a better look at my property, especially the woods where I expected to see some downed trees. When I turned the northernmost corner of our land, I was shocked. At least a dozen large trees (60+ footers) had fallen across the road, and I could no longer see the home at the bottom of the hill. As I got closer, it finally came into view, but it was almost obscured by all of the trees that had fallen into the yard. Fortunately, the house had sustained little damage – which was remarkable given that almost thirty very large trees were now covering practically every part of the yard.

It was then that I realized how close we had come. While talking to my neighbor, he theorized that because their home is in a bowl at the bottom of a hill, the tornado didn’t touch the house but ripped apart his sixty and seventy foot trees. Just past his property, the tornado continued to ravage Ludlow Road for another five miles – a road that experienced a tornado on a similar path just last April.

For the next four or five hours, chainsaw in hand, I helped to remove a few of the trees blocking the street – until the cavalry appeared. A large crew from Beavercreek Township, sporting a backhoe and a couple of Bobcats, made quick work of the remaining trees, clearing the path so that my neighbors on that dead-end road could escape their entrapment. I spent the rest of that day and most of the next cutting up trees and limbs in my yard (we lost a few ourselves) and my neighbor’s.

Lost in all of this was our anniversary. We hadn’t made any firm plans, but I figured at least we would go to a local favorite for dinner – but we didn’t because of the circumstances and my exhaustion. Oh, and the flowers I had ordered never made it to her work because of damage and a power outage to the florist’s business. Oh well, I guess there’s always next year.

I wonder if that thirty-sixth anniversary coming in like a lion has any significant meaning, you know, like Ground Hog’s Day. Maybe it means six more weeks of pleasant, spring-like weather – or fourteen years of gloom, despair, and agony (if you’re old enough, you’ll get the Hee Haw reference!). At any rate, I don’t think we’ll forget this particular anniversary any time soon.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

•