Monster tornado carves 35-mile path of destruction
Twister kills man, ravages more than 100 homes in Weld County
By Kevin Vaughan, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published May 22, 2008 at 10:03 p.m.
Photo by Darin McGregor / The Rocky
A shaken-up couple walk along Colorado 257 after "a big, white monster" tornado destroyed dozens of homes Thursday in Windsor.
Photo by Ted Ullmann / Special To The Rocky/Courtesy Cbs4 News
Ted Ullmann, of Greeley, took this photo a mile east of Windsor on Colorado 392. He was about a mile north of the tornado as it moved west on Eastman Park Boulevard.
It was a monster - a ferocious black funnel of wind, grinding across Weld County for more than 30 minutes, flipping cars, shredding homes, inflicting countless injuries, taking a life.
The massive tornado, just one of several twisters spawned by a supercell storm that raked north-central Colorado, cut past Platteville, Gilcrest and the western outskirts of Greeley before it took aim at Windsor.
In all, it covered more than 35 miles Thursday.
And then it moved on - part of a powerful spring storm that gave birth to twisters reported around Greeley and Fort Collins, near Dacono, Johnstown and Purcell, and as far north as Laramie and Cheyenne in southern Wyoming.
"I lost my dog, lost my cats, lost everything I had," said Peter Ambrose, after the biggest twister wiped out his home above a decommissioned missile silo in west Greeley. "I have nothing."
Near his home, in a county-operated campground in Missile Silo Park, the tornado demolished a motor home as a man tried to flee.
The Weld County Coroner's Office said Oscar Michael Manchester, 52, was killed in the motor home, making it the second deadly tornado in Colorado in less than 14 months, following one that took two lives in Holly in March 2007.
State of emergency
Law officers shut down several highways choked with debris or covered in a blanket of hail, including Interstate 25 north of Fort Collins.
About 15,000 residents remained without power late Thursday after more than 200 power poles were knocked down, said Xcel Energy spokesman Mark Stutz. It might take up to a week to restore power, but Stutz said Xcel would have up to 50 crews working in the area today.
The most extensive damage was in Windsor, a town of about 16,000, where some estimates put the number of homes torn up or destroyed at more than 100.
Gov. Bill Ritter declared a state of emergency and mobilized the National Guard to help with cleanup operations.
He then flew over the area.
Afterward, he marveled at the 35-mile path of destruction - and at the amount of damage.
"Extensive would be an understatement," he said.
The American Red Cross and other relief agencies scrambled to help. A shelter was opened at the Budweiser Events Center along I-25 and temporary housing was available at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley.
Dozens of injuries
The tornado injured dozens of people, although a precise count could not be obtained. The wounds ran from scrapes and bruises to broken bones and more serious lacerations.
Thursday morning had dawned misty and muggy in northern Colorado, the air thick with moisture as a weather system slowly rotated around a giant low-pressure system sitting over Utah. Weather watchers predicted the potential for trouble late in the morning.
It arrived at 11:19 a.m. when a spotter reported 1-inch diameter hail near Platteville in rural Weld County. Seven minutes later, a tornado was on the ground near Milton Reservoir, and it grazed Platte ville then sliced through Gilcrest.
"The storm seemed to bounce," said Gary Sandau, district chief of the Platteville-Gilcrest Fire Protection District.
As Sandau checked for injuries, he entered a home where the storm took the roof away. "You could stand in the living room and look up at the sky," he said.
At that point, the twister was a half-mile wide, according to the National Weather Service.
"Wind, wind, wind," said Sylvia Painter in Gilcrest. "You know how they say a tornado sounds like a train. I didn't hear any train. But it was a ferocious wind. It rattled the windows."
After leaving Gilcrest, the tornado roared north, missing Milliken - but pounding parts of the town with baseball-sized hail - before cutting across the western edge of Greeley, where it flattened buildings and wiped out homes off U.S. 34.
'Sucking your ears off'
In a business park outside Greeley, all 1,200 employees of the State Farm Insurance office were evacuated as the tornado approached, and when it blew through, it shattered windows and ripped the roof off the Swift and Co. headquarters.
The tornado cut through Missile Silo Park and a dairy and then, at 11:57 a.m. - 31 minutes after it was first reported - it thundered for Windsor.
By then, it was estimated to be as much as a mile wide, and when it surged into town it clobbered neighborhoods in the Water Valley area on the east side.
By then, administrators had locked down schools throughout the area, and residents braced for the brunt of the twister. About 130 children at a day-care center were reported safe after the storm passed through, but it had been close - playground equipment lay damaged.
"It passed right over us like a big, white monster," said Thomas Coupe, of Windsor.
"Your ears felt like a vacuum," said Tye Riley, who was inside the Carestream Health building when the twister hit Windsor. "It was sucking your ears off of you because of the pressure of the tornado."
And then, late in the afternoon, the storms largely moved on, giving way to sunshine and patchy, puffy clouds.
All along the twister's path, evidence of its fury could be found.
Tractor-trailer rigs flipped along U.S. 85. Power poles snapped in two. Century-old cottonwoods uprooted and tossed aside. And splintered wood, mangled metal and other debris that cluttered roads and yards and open farm fields.
Staff writers: Alan Gathright, Hector Gutierrez, John C. Ensslin, Todd Hartman, Chris Barge, Jerd Smith, Ann Imse, Berny Morson, Jean Torkelson, Hank Schultz, Tillie Fong, Gary Massaro, Jeff Smith and Joyzelle Davis contributed to this report.
The Associated Press and Greeley Tribune contributed to this report. vaughank@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5019
Colorado's 10 most deadly tornadoes
Date Dead/injured County 1. Aug. 10, 1924 1 0/8 Washington
2. Nov. 4, 1922 4/25 Lincoln
3. April 30, 1942 4/12 Bent/Kiowa
4. Oct. 2, 1930 3/4 Pueblo
5. March 28, 2007 2/137 Prowers (Holly)
6. June 29, 1928 2/50 Weld
7. June 27, 1960 2/4 Phillips
8. June 8, 1928 2/4 Baca
9. Aug. 10, 1917 1/7 Baca
10. Nov. 4, 1922 1/3 Phillips
Source: Rocky Mountain News and tornadoproject.com
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May 23, 2008
1:56 p.m.
Suggest removal
DrMimi writes:
I hear the Colorado National Guard is going to help out
in the aftermath of the storm that occurred on 5-23-08.
Way to GO GUARD. Whether it is Fire, Snow or Wind you
are there!! God Bless you all and all those in Colorado.
Mimi Robidoux, Parent of 2 Colorado National Guards.