IVAN MORENO Associated Press writer | Posted: Friday, May 23, 2008 12:00 am
WINDSOR, Colo. - A large tornado tore through several northern Colorado towns on Thursday, killing at least one person and flipping over tractor-trailers, toppling freight rail cars and ripping roofs off buildings.
A second tornado touched down in the area near Johnstown, eight miles southwest of Greeley, the National Weather Service reported. There were no immediate reports of injuries. All of northeastern Colorado was under a tornado watch through Thursday evening, the National Weather Service said.
Emergency personnel were still trying to determine how many people were hurt from the day's first storm, and how badly. Gov. Bill Ritter declared a state of emergency for Weld County, mobilizing the Colorado National Guard to assist with disaster response.
Ritter and officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency planned to tour the area by helicopter Thursday evening.
Nine people were taken to the Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland with injuries, said hospital spokesman Gary Kimsey. Kimsey said he didn't know the nature and extent of their injuries.
"We have every type of injury, broken bones, cuts, bruises, from everything from falling trees to broken glass hitting them," said Jolene Schneider, spokeswoman for the Windsor Fire Department. "Only thing we are trying to figure out now is how many and how severe."
Earth-movers rolled into damaged sections of Windsor to clear debris and utility crews worked to repair downed lines and poles. Residents surveyed damage to their homes; in some areas, one house remained intact while another was demolished.
Weld County Sheriff John Cooke said one man was killed at a campground west of Greeley, about 60 miles north of Denver. The man's identity wasn't immediately released.
Pete Ambrose, the caretaker at the Missile Park campground, said the man was in a recreational vehicle that was destroyed by the storm. Two other people camping at the park "got beat up, but they were still OK," said Ambrose, who took shelter in a concrete-block restroom.
Jim Kalina, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said two or three major storm cells affected the area and that the weather service was trying to confirm how many tornados touched down. KUSA-TV said seven tornados touched down in the storm system.
The first storm was reported at 11:29 a.m. and tracked north-northwestward through or near the towns of Platteville, Gilcrest, Milliken, Greeley and Windsor. Windsor, a farm town of about 16,000, appeared the hardest hit, with at least one residential neighborhood heavily damaged.
Police officers went door to door in Windsor, looking for survivors, said Sgt. Joe Tymkowych of the police department in nearby Greeley. "We're hoping to finish that by nightfall," Tymkowych said.
Video footage showed a dark gray funnel perhaps a quarter-mile wide near Windsor with heavy hail and rain.
A dozen railroad tank cars were wrenched from their wheels and lay beside the tracks in northeast Windsor, but no spills were visible. The wheels remained on the track.
Helicopter footage from KUSA-TV9 showed several rail tanker cars lying on their sides along a rail line in downtown Windsor.
Homes and farm buildings lost roofs, utility poles were toppled and jackknifed truck blocked a state highway. Interstate 25, the main north-south highway, reopened to traffic, while parts of state Highway 85, an alternate route, were closed. Lockdowns of schools in the area were lifted about an hour after the storm passed.
The American Red Cross was setting up a shelter at the Windsor Community Center.
Splintered wood, mangled metal and other debris cluttered roads, yards and agricultural fields.
About 120 children at a day care center in Windsor were reported safe after the storm passed through; playground equipment outside the center was damaged. The children were taken to an Eastman Kodak Co. plant on the town's southeast edge that wasn't hit, said company spokesman Chris Veronda.
Tymkowych of the Greeley police said he was about a half-mile away from the tornado as it swept through the western edge of Evans and Greeley, an area that is mostly corn fields.
"It was a tornado that just sat on the ground," Tymkowych said. "The amount of swirling debris and dust was just amazing, about a block, a block and a half wide. You could see debris just rotating, light poles, trees, you could see items being cast out from the sides, the edges of the tornado."
The tornado damaged three buildings at a State Farm Insurance operations center on Greeley's west side where about 1,200 people were working, but no one was hurt, company spokeswoman May Martinez-Hendershot said. "They were all able to get down into a safe center and we had no injuries," she said.
"My house is gone," said Ambrose, the caretaker at the Missile Park campground. "I lost my dog. I lost my cats. I lost my camper. I lost everything."
Ambrose said the storm downed cottonwood trees and power poles, and heavily damaged a nearby dairy. He said one camper may have been killed, but his account could not be immediately verified.
In Windsor and Greeley, 10 miles to the east, the tornado knocked down trees and shattered windows.
"It passed right over us like a big, white monster," said Thomas Coupe, 87, of Windsor.
Xcel Energy spokesman Mark Stutz said about 60,000 customers from around Fort Lupton north to the Wyoming line lost power when the storm hit. Power was restored to all but roughly 15,000 customers by mid-afternoon. Stutz said the electricity likely wouldn't be turned back on for about 9,000 customers until today at the earliest because transmission lines had to be rebuilt.
Kimsey said patients at a Fort Collins hospital were moved to hallways and non-emergency employees and visitors were ordered to the basement during the storm.