Tornado Hits Near Homer

BY SUSAN T. HERRING, Editor, The Guardian-Journal

            The unpredictable winter weather in North Louisiana can sometimes be warm enough for air conditioning or cold enough for an ice storm. The evening of Wednesday, January 12, 2005  in Claiborne Parish was no different. The temperature reached into the mid 70s. A cold front expected to come through the area later that night was expected to bring strong thunderstorms. It did_and much more.

            With no warning, more than thirty families were in the path of a tornado estimated to be traveling 55-60 miles per hour. It formed just below the home of Matt Simmons on Harris Road around 10:45 PM and  shortly after 11:00 PM, it hit the unoccupied home of Clifton Hamilton's son near the intersection of Forest Grove Road and La. 2.

            On Thursday, January 13, two representatives from the National Weather Service were in Claiborne Parish to assess the damage. Meteorologists Mark Frazier, Warning Coordinator, and Bill Adams, Senior Forecaster, concluded that the tornado began as an F1 on Harris Road, but was rated an F2 (113-157 mph) by the time it reached Powell Road. The tornado traveled 15 miles in a straight path across Airport Loop and Bream Island to Forest Grove, ranging in width from 50 to 250 yards at the widest point.

            No damage was assessed between Forest Grove and the Arkansas line, but the twister continued its destruction along a 24-mile path between Junction City and a rural area 8 miles south of El Dorado, killing two elderly persons and injuring several others. At this point, the NWS said the tornado had reached an intensity of F3...158 to 206 miles per hour.

            Many in Claiborne Parish said this was the worst they had ever seen. Chuck Talley, with the Claiborne Parish Sheriff's Office, said he hadn't seen anything like this in nearly 30 years. Dennis Butcher, Director for the Office of Emergency Preparedness, said, "We were damn lucky."

            Butcher said at approximately 10:55 when the National Weather Service called to inform the Sheriff's Office they had positive rotation and echo hooks, indicating a tornado 4-5 miles southwest of Homer. Within 3-5 minutes, the Sheriff's Office was receiving calls, reporting damage in Claiborne Parish.

            It all began about 10:45 PM Wednesday night when Matt Simmons was setting his alarm clock. He had just left his parents' home next door, Gordon and Cee Simmons. The lights blinked three times, then he heard the noise getting louder and louder. He could hear things hitting the house. He was running to the livingroom to get his new German Shepherd puppy when it hit. The force rolled his trailer forward over his truck, throwing him approximately 40-50 feet from his trailer. He managed to get up and walk about ten yards, then crawled the next sixty yards to the fence between his and his parents' house.

            Gordon was napping in his recliner when Cee woke him up to tell him the storm was getting worse. She had looked out the back door and had seen the wind blowing hard. Within minutes, it hit. Gordon felt the house rise up. Then, seconds later, it was over. Cee went to the front door to find the columns on the porch gone.  She screamed. Gordon came out and walked to the end of the porch. It was then he heard his son Matt calling, "Daddy, help me. I'm hurt."

            They managed to get Matt to the house and call 911 for an ambulance. Matt was having trouble breathing and could not stand up. They realized he needed medical attention fast. Over the scanner, Gordon heard the ambulance having trouble getting to them because of the trees on Harris Road. He drove down and tried to move some from this end, driving back to check on Matt. The ambulance finally made it around on Ford Road. Matt was taken to Homer Memorial Hospital where they discovered he had a cracked pelvic bone. He was out of ICU and in a private room by Monday. Even though he was up walking, he still could not move his right leg without help. The doctors expect him to recover once everything is healed.

            Matt said, "I'm still here and I am very thankful for that. All the prayers and help means a lot to me." He realizes if it weren't for God first, the emergency personnel and staff at Homer Memorial Hospital, he might not be here.

            Dispatcher Ashley Stovall was on duty at Claiborne Electric. She heard a weather alert about one minute before the tornado hit. She attempted to warn custodian Christine Gantt by paging her, but ended up running to the other end of the building to tell her a tornado was about to hit Homer. Christine looked up to see the ceiling tiles lifting up, and said, "It's here." Within seconds, it was over.

            The windows in five cars parked in the back of the Claiborne Electric building were blown out by the force of the twister. A portion of the parking canopy was twisted, bending the heavy 6 inch steel beams over. Joey White, spokesman for Claiborne Electric, said the damage was limited because their building was designed to tornado standards.

            Kim Hays was watching the final weather report on the evening news around 10:35 PM. She was making sure there would be no tornado watches or severe storm warnings in Claiborne Parish before going to bed. Her husband, Kimbell, had been in bed about an hour. Shortly after turning out the lights, it began to rain, thunder and lightning. The electricity began to blink on and off, then the wind picked up. She woke Kimbell, scared. By that time the wind was roaring and the windows in the mobile home were rattling. She picked up their 2-month-old baby, Tatum, from the bassinet.  The trailer began to sway back and forth.

            Kimbell threw the comforter from the bed around the three of them and they went to the floor beside the bed, only to have the force of the tornado lift them and the trailer, axle and all, into the air. Kim closed her eyes and prayed. They were being sucked toward the funnel cloud. A heavy chest of drawers hit Kimbell, breaking four ribs and puncturing his lung, separating him from Kim and the baby. Kim felt herself and her baby being lifted, as if some higher power picked then up and placed them on the wet, muddy ground, where she landed on her back. She opened her eyes and saw the corner of their mattress hovering above her. Something was holding it up as if to shelter them from the rain and flying debris.  She would later discover where she landed was the only clear spot among the pile of rubble.  She heard Kimbell calling. Their trailer was gone. Nothing was left but the cinder blocks, but all three had miraculously survived. She thanked God.

            Kimbell managed to get to his truck, then used an ax to break out the window to get to his mobile phone. He called his dad. He said, "Our house is gone. We need someone to take us to the hospital." At first, Bubba Hays thought his son's house had burned, but when he got to Powell Drive at the Hill Farm and saw the trees blocking the road, he knew it was a tornado. Kim was badly bruised, scraped and her back was hurt. Tatum had a minor scrape on the back of her head. Both were released from the hospital on Friday. Kimbell remained in ICU until Sunday, then was released from the hospital.

            On the east side of Homer at 2068 Airport Loop, Ann Freeman was in bed. Her husband, Joe, was  in the living room, sitting near the front of the house. The phone rang. Joe went to the kitchen to answer it. It was his son-in-law Jeffery Huffstetler calling to warn them a tornado had just passed over their house on Harris Road and was headed in their direction. Joe called to Ann to get up. The lights went out and  Joe went to get a lantern. Soon they could hear the wind; it sounded like a freight train. They thought it was hailing but now think it was debris hitting the house. About 8 minutes after getting the call from Jeffery, at 10:55 PM, the whole front of the house blew in. Joe jumped behind the sofa table but was hit in the hand with flying debris. Ann was on the couch and pulled a blanket over her head. She said, "I know there is a God. He stopped the wall before it hit me." They grabbed the car keys still sitting by the microwave and walked over broken glass to get to the carport. The drive was blocked, so they drove their car through the ditch to neighbor's Paul and Susie Coleman's house, then to Homer Memorial to get checked out. Joe's hand was swollen and bruised, but not broken.

            The next day they began to try to salvage what they could of clothes and mementoes. Joe said, "The Lord was with us last night and He is still with us today." On Saturday, Ann said Susie Coleman fed lunch to 86 people who were helping clean up, including the Disaster Relief Team from Calvary Baptist.

            Next door, Sandra Griggs was lying in her recliner watching television. Her husband, Buddy, was in the kitchen packing his lunch for the next day. Her son, Corey Marshall, was in his bedroom playing a video game. They had absolutely no warning. She felt the pressure and hollered for Corey. He didn't hear her. It was warm in his room so he had opened the window. All of a sudden, the screen flew off. He got up to leave the room and the door slammed shut. He opened it enough for his dog to run out and it slammed shut again. By the time he got the door open, it was over.  Most of the damage to the house was to the eaves on each end. The storage building and carport were gone. The new grill was gone but the butane bottle was still there. Three trees had fallen, almost cutting Corey's 1995 Z-71 extended cab truck in half, damaging Buddy's 1995 Nissan pickup, and destroying their storage building, but no one was hurt.

            Across the street, Benny Shelton's doublewide mobile home was blown off the slab and a tree was through Vance Robinson's home. All but about ten feet of the 85 foot porch on the back of Dwight Mitchell's log home was torn off, flooding his house.

            On the opposite end of Airport Loop, Dorothy Ferguson had watched the weather before going to bed. No bad weather predicted for Homer area, just some heavy winds. After saying her prayers, she listened to the thunder. All of a sudden, the wind got strong and things started to hit the house. Then she felt some cool air. The roof lifted up pulling all the wiring out of the walls. Part of the ceiling fan fell on her bed and the mirrored closet doors fell at the foot of her bed and shattered. Her night stand beside her bed and a picture above her bed did not move. Across the hall, her husband, John L. was asleep in bed. The force knocked him to the floor before he realized what was happening. Neither was hurt. They managed to get to the utility room which was still intact. They found their extra pair of car keys and managed to drive their car around the fallen trees and debris to their son  Scott's house located a short distance away. Mrs. Ferguson said there were at least 20 big tall pines and oaks down. One huge sycamore tree, more than 100 years old with a 5 foot diameter, was down. Every one of the trees had fallen away from the house.

            They received a lot of help the next day from friends and neighbors. The Southern Baptist Association Disaster Team from Oak Grove also came and cut the trees. Mrs. Ferguson said, "You don't realize who your friends are until something like this happens." Amazingly, as a sign there was a higher power watching over them, the Virgin Mary from the Freeman's Christmas manger scene was found in the Ferguson's yard.

            At 122 Seth Lane off Bream Island, Carl and Virginia McLemore had been in bed about 45 minutes when a huge oak tree fell into the house damaging almost every room but the bedroom they were in. They were unharmed. On Saturday, Carl was taken to Homer Memorial with chest pains. They thought he was having another heart attack. He had one two months earlier. They found it was only due to extreme stress caused by insufficient oxygen to the heart. He was to be released mid-week. The McLemore's pastor, Ray Anderson, said, "When we think of the power of God's creation, it reminds us how finite we really are."

            The McLemore's neighbors, Scott and Dot Mire, managed to crawl out of the debris of their home. They got in their truck and turned on the lights before they realized nothing was left except the porch and the wrought iron rockers sitting there. 

Other homes with heavy damage or considered a total loss were Rickey Perot on Seth Lane, W. C. Peterson at 129 Odom Lane, Milton Odom at 125 Odom Lane (both off Bream Island Road), a home at 113 Jane Drive, Kim Phung at 2093 Airport Loop, Lloyd Lyons Sr. at 4012 Harris Road, Byron Blake on Harris Road., and the old Sid Moreland house on Hwy. 9 near Claiborne Electric.

            Phung, former owner of the Chinese Kitchen next to M&M Hardware, was making plans last year to reopen the restaurant when she was involved in an accident on I-49 in Shreveport. She never recovered from her injuries and is now being cared for in a nursing home.

            According to Road Superintendent Dean Busby, the Police Jury road crew worked through the night until about 3 PM on Thursday. They spent approximately 270-300 manhours clearing the roadways. The heaviest damage was at the intersection of Fincher Creek and Harris Road, across Ford Road, behind Claiborne Electric, along Powell Road, both sides of Airport Loop and Bream Island.

            Joey White said at the height of the storm Claiborne Electric had between 1,500 and 2,000 outages. By daylight on Thursday, all but 400 had their electricity restored and those were back on by 8 PM Friday night.

            All the families affected by the disaster expressed their appreciation for all the help they have received. Many were thankful to be alive. Most say they plan to rebuild. "We need to recognize that so many friends and church groups have been out working every day since the storm and will be for weeks to come," said Dennis Butcher. "In times like these, Claiborne Parish is a place you can count on your friends and neighbors."

THIS HOUSE ON SETH LANE OFF BREAM ISLAND ROAD is an example of the destruction left by the F2 tornado along a 15-mile path from Harris Road to Forest Grove on Wednesday, January 12. At least 35 homes were heavily damaged or destroyed. Thankfully no one was seriously injured.

ONE TORNADO traveling 55-60 miles per hour destroyed homes and property along 15 miles in Claiborne Parish and 24 miles in Union County, Arkansas late Wednesday night, January 12. In Claiborne Parish about 35  homes were heavily damaged or destroyed and a dozen people were injured. Two were killed and 13 injured in Union County. The tornado was rated F2 (113-157 mph) in Claiborne Parish and F3 (158-206 mph) in Union County.

More Images of the Tornado Damage
by area photographer Rusty Gilbert

Images of the Tornado Damage
Courtesy of The Guardian-Journal

Marilyn Bush Loses Appeal

BY SUSAN T. HERRING, Editor, The Guardian-Journal

            The Louisiana Supreme Court issued its ruling on January 4, 2005, refusing to hear the appeal filed by attorney Eric Johnson on behalf of his client, former Haynesville Town Clerk Marilyn Bush.

            In April 2002, Bush was convicted of felony theft and sentenced to ten years in prison. Prosecutors say she took more than $430,000 between July 1991 and September 2000. State Legislative Auditor Dan Kyle confirmed a total theft of $432,250. Bush denies taking that amount but admits to taking about $72,000 between March 1999 and September 2000 to support a gambling habit.

            On February 19, 2004, District Judge Jenifer Clason vacated the ten year sentence she had previously imposed on Bush and re-sentenced her to a ten year suspended sentence and placed her on four years supervised probation in exchange for a payment of $100,000 toward restitution. At that time, she had served 22 months of her 10 year sentence.

            District Attorney Walter May argued that the defendant had waived her right to appeal her sentence and that she had never provided documentary evidence on her assets or income, to show whether future retirement payments might be appropriately applied toward restitution.

            May appealed the decision to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeal. They overturned Clason's ruling and reinstated Bush's original 10-year prison sentence. Bush was rearrested, but remains free on her $15,000 bond obligation.

            Johnson has filed a motion in District Court in hopes of keeping Bush out of prison. The hearing is scheduled for 9:30 AM on March 8.

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE Meteorologists Mark Frazier, Warning Coordinator, (seated) and Bill Adams, Senior Forecaster, (right) were in Claiborne Parish Thursday, January 13 to assess the path of the tornado and view the damage. Dean Busby, Police Jury Road Superintendent, showed the road crew had found damage between Fincher Creek Road and Forest Grove. Busby said he had not seen damage this bad since he began working for the Police Jury in 1982. For more on this storm, go to the National Weather Service website for the Southern Region at www.srh.weather.gov/shv/January_12_2005_PNS_Storms.htm

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