Oneonta storm damage

Things got a little intense last night. We were narrowly missed by a tornado! A waning storm suddenly intensified. We ran to our safe place with no time to grab the camera... the dark clouds were beginning to rotate.

When we went into town this morning I took the camera. (Click any of the pictures for a much larger view.)


Near the high school there was a lot of debris.


The fieldhouse is not what it used to be...


News crews were on hand.


Television reported that two infants were injured and trapped inside that SUV the previous night.


Power crews were everywhere. So were sightseers. This is a huge amount of traffic for Oneonta!


This was the strangest damage. Only the flagpoles in the middle were toppled.


Another view of the former flagpoles.


Was that scratch on the courthouse wall there before?


Two huge limbs are missing from this old courthouse tree. I wonder if it will survive. The column supporting the bell was apparently damaged when the limbs fell.


The Co-op roof had a problem.


So did their sign. (Note the snapped tree also.)


More roof damage.


I'm not sure if this building was still in use or not.


Lot of this kind of thing in the area.


This was atypical tree damage.


Most were like this -- as if they'd been twisted off. I believe this is characteristic of tornadic winds.
Updated: I've been told that strong straight-line winds can have the same effect.


This one looked like had a problem already.

We didn't make it down the side streets, which were alledged to have the most damage... We didn't want to get in the way of the cleanup.

Update: Preliminary reports from the National Weather Service indicate F2 tornado damage (113 to 157 mph winds) in Oneonta.