Colorado officials tour tornado damage
WINDSOR, Colo. (AP) - May 23, 2008 The twister damaged or destroyed homes, businesses, dairies and
farms in several Weld County towns Thursday. The storm system
pelted the region with golf ball-size hail, swept vehicles off
roads and tipped 15 rail cars off the tracks in Windsor, a farm
town about 70 miles north of Denver.
Police and more than 100 National Guard troops cordoned off a
particularly hard-hit area of about one square mile on Friday so
utility crews could check each home for gas leaks, repair gas mains
severed by uprooted trees, remove downed power lines and clear
streets of shattered glass and debris.
It might take a day or more to secure the area, said Bill
Easterling, commander of the emergency response team.
"I think at this point it's pretty much hit me," said a
dejected Cindy Miller, a 46-year-old high school teacher. "I'm not
going home for a while."
Before being ordered out Thursday, Miller found a wall to her
house torn apart and insulation, glass, water and debris
everywhere. Wooden planks had penetrated a bathroom wall, and her
trampoline was in a neighbor's yard.
Authorities said about 100 homes were destroyed and another 100
were damaged by the tornado, which began near Platteville, about 20
miles south of Windsor.
A 52-year-old man was killed at a campground near Greeley, said
Weld County Deputy Coroner Chris Robillard.
Thirteen people were treated at hospitals, and more than 100
others received medical attention for minor injuries, said Jim
Shires, a spokesman for emergency responders. Crews searched the
cordoned-off area of Windsor and found no additional victims.
Gov. Bill Ritter toured the damage and declared a state of
emergency for the area.
"I think it's just miraculous that there has not been more loss
of life," U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave said after touring damaged
neighborhoods Friday. She and Colorado Sen. Wayne Allard asked
President Bush to declare the area a disaster to free up federal
aid.
Conditions converged in just the right way, time and place to
produce "a pretty remarkable tornado," said Greg Carbin of the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Storm Prediction
Center in Norman, Okla.
A preliminary damage survey Friday by the National Weather
Service showed the tornado that hit Greeley was likely an E-F3,
with speeds from 136 mph to 165 mph, and the one that hit Windsor
had wind speeds of 111 mph to 135 mph. Meteorologist Dan Leszcynski
said it was unclear whether the twisters were one and the same.
Garry Briese, a regional administrator for the Federal Emergency
Management Agency, said FEMA would find housing for displaced
residents.
About 6,000 customers were still without power, and Xcel Energy
said it could be a week before it's restored.
"We can't find poles, wires, transformers," utility spokesman
Mark Stutz said. "Stuff is gone. There's nothing there."
Threatening skies, high winds and another tornado warning Friday
forced workers to temporarily suspend cleanup and residents to
scurry to shelter. At least two tornadoes were reported in the
plains east of Windsor. No damage was reported.
Severe storms, some including tornadoes, also ripped through
parts of Wyoming, Kansas, Oklahoma and California on Thursday,
damaging homes and farm lands. In northwestern Oklahoma, a truck
ran off a road that had been washed away by heavy rain, killing a
14-year-old boy, state troopers said Friday.
Tornadoes touched down about 20 miles northwest of Cheyenne and
near Interstate 80 in eastern Wyoming, said Chad Hahn,
meteorologist with the National Weather Service there. Small
tornadoes were also reported Friday in Platte County, he said. Some
damage was reported but no injuries.
About 100 people have died in U.S. twisters so far this year,
the worst toll in a decade, according to the weather service, and
the danger has not passed yet. Tornado season typically peaks in
the spring and early summer, then again in the late fall.
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Associated Press writer Judith Kohler in Denver contributed to
this report.
