PHARSALIA – Officials are investigating reports of a tornado in the Pharsalia area after a mobile home, three barns and wide swaths of forest were knocked down during an early Thursday storm.
“We saw very typical signs of a possible super cell storm, with multiple tornadoes or tornado activity, but the only people that can determine that are the meteorologists. I’m no expert to say it was a tornado, but it appears it was,” said Chenango County Emergency Management Director Matt Beckwith after touring some of the damage yesterday.
An path of destruction more than a 100 yards wide knocked down an area of dense pine located in the New Michigan State Forest in Pharsalia. The trail of toppled trees is clearly visible by motorists traveling along North Road, and the damage etched its way across the landscape for more than a mile and a half, also crossing Fred Stewart Road and Center Road.
Center Road residents Howard and Laura Price saw a two-story barn and a guest trailer near their house completely destroyed by the storm.
“Well very simply put, at about 3:15 to 3:20 a.m. this morning a sound like a freight train shook the house. We heard all types of sounds, explosions, breaking boards and things slamming into the house,” said Howard.
The couple fled to their basement and when they emerged, they found their property unrecognizable.
The mobile home, occasionally used by visiting guests, was in use at the time, but the friend staying there had spent the night out. The home’s metal frame sat several yards from a pile of debris, parts of which resembled a roof and other pieces were scatted over several acres of a nearby field. A 100-year-old, two-story storage barn across the street from the Price’s home was reduced to timbers and the building’s roof was lying on the opposite side of the house.
“How it got there I have no idea, but I’m guessing the tornado just tossed it up into the air and over the house,” said Howard.
Howard, a 64-year-old retired Department of Corrections Officer, contends the storm was a twister, the fourth he’s said to have seen evidence of in the area since moving here 21 years ago.
