Tornado leaves destruction in its wake

As Jon Reese wiped sweat off his brow he knew there was a lot to do. "These don't come at convenient times," he said as he thought about the tornado that left debris strewn across the alfalfa fields he was set to cut this week. "There is metal everywhere, and now we have to walk the fields picking it all up before we can cut."

Around 12:45 Thursday afternoon Reese said he was in his kitchen as a severe storm approached. He looked out and saw stuff flying everywhere. High winds began ripping off roofs and anything in the yard ended up in someones else yard or his fields. About 500 feet from Reese's kitchen a semi-tractor trailer truck got pushed right off the road and landed on it's side.

A call came in to Cochranton fire department a few minutes later that lines were down on Route 173 in Wayne Township, according Collette Neff, a long time volunteer with the department. On the way to the scene the fire crews had to stop and clear a tree off the road just so they could pass. When they arrived they could see metal road signs twisted and some completely uprooted and flung several feet away. Trees down across the road and building material everywhere.

One of Reese's cows was severely injured and had to be put down. "It looks like she was picked up and thrown through the fence," he said. The driver of the truck was taken to the hospital to be checked out but was ok. No other people were reported injured.

But there was severe damage done to the barns, a garage was leveled and several houses had damage.

Northwest Rural Electric, PennDOT, the state police and several fire and rescue crews were on scene. Allen Clark of the Crawford County Emergency Services Agency came out to assess the damage and report to the National Weather Service who later in the day confirmed it was a tornado according to Erie News now..

Route 173 was closed from Route 27 to Lippert Road while the road was cleared and down power lines were repaired.

Reese said his multi-generation farm was hit with a tornado in 1972 as well. He recalled not getting much help back then from the insurance company, but hopes this time around its a little better. He said it was difficult coming back from that storm.

A few miles away Jodi Baker Lewis got a call there were trees down at her house on Sugar Lake. She had joked earlier that was all she needed today for a tornado to now drop a tree on her house. When she arrived home the trees that fell narrowly missed the house and garage. "I have a huge mess, but I don't have holes in my roof and I only lost some little things under that mess. And they were just things, nothing else." she said.

​"I haven't heard of anyone getting hurt," she said. And because of that she added,  "I think there are a lot of grateful [people] tonight."