Silo caretaker loses mobile home, collie

Weld County man tries to save driver just as twister hits

By Kevin Vaughan, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published May 22, 2008 at 10:14 p.m.

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In the aftermath, Peter Ambrose looked at the place where his home stood and saw only a concrete slab, water shooting up from a pipe, propane spewing from a tank.

"There is nothing left," he said.

Ambrose is a Weld County employee and caretaker at the Atlas "E" Missile Site west of Greeley - a Cold War-era installation that was decommissioned by the federal government years ago. After it was turned over to Weld County, the underground concrete bunker was converted into a storage area for thousands of pages of historic documents - records that, in some cases, date back a century.

Ambrose and his wife, Sharon, lived in a mobile home that sat above the missile silo along an old section of Highway 257.

Sharon Ambrose was at work at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley when the storm hit. Peter Ambrose was at the missile silo site, just before noon, when he looked to the south and saw the twister churning out of the sky.

He called 911, grabbed his bearded collie, K.C., jumped into his pickup and rushed to the campground nearby, attempting to warn people staying there in campers about the storm.

Ambrose called out to one of them, a military veteran staying in a motor home with a Chihuahua named Tetonka.

"I told him to follow me," Ambrose said. "He didn't."

Ambrose and his dog rushed into a cinderblock restroom in the park as the tornado bore down on the area. First came the hail - pea-size, then half-inch, then one-inch. Then came the wind.

K.C. broke away from him at one point and ran out into the storm.

After the twister passed, Ambrose ventured out to take stock. That's when he realized that he'd lost nearly everything. The tornado toppled giant power lines nearby, swept away his home and his county-owned pickup truck.

And it inflicted debilitating injuries on K.C., who had to be euthanized Thursday afternoon.

The man in his motor home died when the twister pummeled the vehicle.

"He tried to drive away, and it caught him," Ambrose said.

Two others staying in the campground were cut up and bruised but otherwise OK, Ambrose said.

Ambrose said he was unsure of the whereabouts of his two cats, and unsure what he would do next.

• May 23, 2008

  8:51 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  rwmorrisonjr writes:

  My heart and prayers go out to him, his wife, and everyone else who have been affected by the tornado and have lost everything.

• May 24, 2008

  10:31 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  ejinnorcal writes:

  Thank the Lord that Pete and Sharon and their family are Ok.
  So sorry about the man who lost his life and Pete's animals.

  Our prayers go out to all the victims and families devastated by this
  tornado.
  Have not been able to reach Pete due to downed telco service.

  Ed and Jacky P. in Northern California
  ejinnorcal@gmail.com

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