Tornado plows through Greeley, Windsor; one dead

(Click to enlarge)

This story was originally published in The Denver Post on May 23, 2008

WINDSOR ? A tornado dropped from roiling skies over Weld County around midday on Thursday, shredding portions of the towns of Windsor and Greeley with fury that measured nearly a mile wide and left one person dead.

The twister, accompanied by hail approaching baseball size, caused multiple crashes and some injuries on area roads and rolled several semis off U.S. 85 north of Gilcrest.

The lone death was a male camper at a trailer park outside Greeley, according to the Weld County coroner. He was identified as Oscar "Mike" Manchester, 52.

The large tornado, one of several to develop north of Denver on Thursday, plowed northwest from Gilcrest to Windsor, ravaging farms, lumberyards, commercial areas, trailers, a day care and at least 60 homes along a 35-mile path.

Moving at a 30-mph clip, it tugged down power lines, toppled trucks and cattle cars, derailed part of a train, and

hurled wood and metal bits of roof up to 200 yards.

Greeley police Sgt. Joe Tymkowych tracked the tornado as it struck the city and churned buildings to shambles, with winds perhaps whipping up to 200 mph.

"You've heard of tornadoes that hit the ground and then go back into the clouds," Tymkowych said. "This one, it just sat on the ground, and it kept going and going."

He said the twister struck the west edge of Evans and advanced to Greeley's western outskirts, where it slammed into the headquarters of Swift & Co. and the regional headquarters for State Farm Insurance.

The tornado caused heavy damage to the roofs of both buildings, blew out windows and mangled cars in the parking lots. From there, the swirling winds ravaged Missile Silo Park, overturning several trailers and killing a camper, Tymkowych said.

Dwight Smidt pointed to a trailer blown 50 yards from its parking spot, where he said a Vietnam veteran he had just met may have died in the storm.

The twister "picked it up and smashed it to the ground. It ripped the whole top of it off," Smidt said. "It ripped the carpet right off the floor. All these parts, way out there" - he pointed into a field - "were part of the trailer." Other trailers from the park were ripped from foundations and blown into a row of fir trees, but the nearby Kodak plant appeared to sustain only a power outage and minor damage.

Bearing down on Windsor

Then the storm bore down on Windsor.

Bob Groke was working at Signature Bank when rain and hail started drumming the area.

"We could see just really pitchblack sky, and the clouds started to circulate," he said. "It was huge and it was close."

Everything turned calm for a few minutes, and about a dozen people at the bank strategized that they would seek protection inside the vault should the weather turn bad again.

Quickly, it did.

"We just got into the vault when the windows on the doors blew out," Groke said. "But we were safe."

Across the street, kids from a nearby day-care center waited out the tornado inside their classrooms, then took refuge inside the vault at Bank of Choice when they heard more tornadoes were possible.

Trees yanked up at the roots lay on

Poudre Valley Rural Electric Association utility crews work into the night near Windsor to restore service. As many as 60,000 customers in northern Colorado were without power, but most service was restored by Thursday night. (Karl Gehring, The Denver Post )

their sides in a smashed-up subdivision and across tombstones in a cemetery. A rusty red boxcar lay sideways along the railway. Just to the north, 14 black rail tankers were littered with lumber.

The wind scattered the neat white fencing at a nearby horse farm and beat a smart new mansion under construction back into the dirt.

Random destruction

The tornado's destruction was typically random: Just south of the most decimated subdivision in Windsor, another cluster of pristine

Gov. Bill Ritter talks to the news media after surveying the damage in Windsor. (Joe Amon, The Denver Post )

homes stood relatively unscathed, cars neatly parked in driveways by clipped green lawns that stayed clean. While news helicopters and the governor's entourage flew overhead, traffic flowed smoothly on many streets, and parents picked up their children from school.

By late afternoon, Windsor blocks were buzzing with the sound of chainsaws and wood chippers, as neighbors gathered on lawns for cleanup detail and to trade stories about the day.

Casey Arnett, 33, surveyed the damage to a house he had been fixing up and renting out. The storm had punched huge holes in the room, and "it slid the whole body of the house about 6 inches," Arnett said.

The renter would have to leave, Arnett said. The garage is in a nearby lake.

On a

A woman walks into the driveway of a home in a Windsor subdivision that was hit hard. At least 60 homes in the tornado's path were heavily damaged. ( Tim Rasmussen, The Denver Post )

farm about a half-mile from Missile Silo Park, shards of corrugated metal were all that remainedof a barn, while dead calves littered the road nearby.

Elier Dominguez, 24, stood with blood on his chin, where blowing glass had hit him, and a bruise on his thigh from hail.

The wind had thrown his trailer about 50 yards from its moorings.

His wife, 23-year-old Ilde, and son Johnathan, 3, rummaged the field for clothes, toys and any other family possessions scattered but spared by the tornado.

"Everything I owned was in that mobile home, and it's gone," he said."Now we're looking for clothes to wear."

Ilde had been in the trailer when they first spotted the twister. She picked up her son and ran to a concrete dairy building

A tornado hits Weld County on Thursday. Tornado researchers say the supercell thunderstorm was unusual in its strength and location so close to the mountains. (Photo taken from 9News video )

for safety. Ilde looked back just before reaching the shelter.

The trailer was gone.

Winds devastated the livestock as well. About 20 mature cows and 40 to 50 calves ? out of the dairy operation's 250 animals ? died as a result of the tornado, said farmworker Larry Dehaan. Some of the injured livestock had to be shot.

"We can't even find them all," he said.

A state of emergency

Gov. Bill Ritter,who toured the damage by air in the afternoon, declared a state of emergency and called out the Colorado National Guard.

"We will be doing all we can to assist the people of Weld County as we assess the damage and determine how the state can provide the most effective aid," Ritter said in a news release. "My heart goes out to the people of Weld County during this very dangerous time."

In the Old Town section of Windsor, some homeowners were told late in the day they might need to evacuate the neighborhood because of safety hazards. Cranes lifted portions of roofs off damaged houses.

Volunteers walked the neighborhood asking homeowners if they needed help boarding up windows or placing tarps over roof holes. Josh Roloff works with Restoration Now, a nonprofit group out of Fort Collins that, on a typical day, assists low-income people with repairs.

"We're making sure people are dry in their homes," Roloff said.

Rain and golf-ball to quarter-sized hail pelted the area as prelude to the devastation.

A funnel cloud was spotted over Loveland's southwest edge about 12:45 p.m., according to the Larimer County Sheriff's Office. Others were reported at the Fort Collins Emergency Operations Center and Fossil Creek Reservoir and north of Wellington, while 60 mph winds and quartersized hail hammered Buckhorn Mountain. Another tornado touched down near Dacono, and yet another did damage near Laramie.

Schools locked down

Schools in affected areas were put on lockdown.

Harrowing reports flowed in to authorities.

The North Metro Fire Protection District fielded a call about 12:30 p.m. of a "microburst or possible tornado" near the intersection Weld County Road 11 and Weld County Road 6.

A fifth-wheel trailer flipped over, trapping a man who was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital with nonlife-threatening injuries. Five outbuildings were leveled, one home was damaged and metal fencing was destroyed, said North Metro spokesperson Wendy Forbes.

Residents in one home near Weld County Road 54 were trapped inside by a fallen tree, and a home east of Interstate 25 on Weld County Road 6 appeared to have been hit, said Larimer County sheriff's spokesperson Eloise Campanella.

Colorado State Trooper Ryan Sullivan said the tornado caused multiple crashes and multiple injuries on highwaysinWeld County. Colorado 60 and U.S. 85 closed as the State Patrol and emergency crews helped motorists.

Seven people were admitted to Medical Center of the Rockies with injuries, but their conditions weren't available, said spokesman Gary Kimsey. Poudre Valley Hospital, which is part of the same hospital system, also received patients.

Both facilities moved patients into hallways as a safety precaution from 12:45 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. as the storm moved through. Poudre Valley Hospital also moved about 200 nonmedical personnel and visitors into the basement.

Red Cross sets up shelters

The Red Cross set up a shelter at the Windsor Community Center, 250 11th St., and its Denver chapter sent people and supplies to help the Fort Collins chapter.

Larimer County spokeswoman Deni La Rue said The Ranch ? which encompasses the Budweiser Events Center & Fairgrounds ? canceled all Thursday night events and prepared 200 meals to help the Red Cross.

Xcel Energy spokesman Mark Stutz said the tornado damaged three power transmission lines, including a pair of 230,000-volt lines at the utility's Fort St. Vrain power plant near Platteville.

As many as 60,000 customers lost service as the storm passed through, Stutz said. About a third of those had service restored by midafternoon, but customers in Platteville, Greeley, Milliken, Windsor and elsewhere remained without power.

"This is some of the more significant weather damage we've had in many years," Stutz said. "I imagine this will be a several-day event for us."

A Qwest crew is on site assessing the damage to its services in the affected areas, said spokeswoman Jennifer Barton.

Staff writers Kirk Mitchell, Michael Booth, Kieran Nicholson, Bruce Finley, Carlos Illescas, Mike McPhee, Katy Human, Cynthia Pasquale, Vikki Migoya and Andy Voung contributed to this report.

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