How To Make A Tornado

Owners dig out of rubble after tornado rips through properties

Tanner Maw (left) and Cody Lawson (right), of the 41st National Guard, help Tim Shearer move debris from living room Tuesday morning, after a tornado hit the property Monday night. Shearer lives in the house with his mother, Barbara, and father, Albert, four miles east of Polk. The Shearers have been renting the home for five years from Bonnie Wilshusen of York. 

Al Shearer sat in a chair amid the rubble.

The front windows were blown out ... furniture that wasn’t turned over was water damaged. The most glaring destruction was the massive opening from where the roof and ceiling were ripped away.

Shearer, his wife, Barb, and their son, Tim, of rural Stromsburg, were attempting to clean up their rental home after a Monday tornado tore through the area.

“I didn’t believe it did all this because it didn’t last that long and didn’t make much noise,” Al Shearer said Tuesday.

He and his wife huddled in the basement when the twister hit. Their son, who was outside watching the storm form to the south, didn’t make it inside in time.

By the time Tim reached the front door, it was too late. He said he couldn’t open the door because of the air pressure caused by the tornado. So he took cover the best he could up against the door.

He watched as the roof was pulled off the home.

The tornado passed in about 20 seconds, and Tim made it through without a scratch. But the storm did leave a wake of devastation to the house and the farm.

“I’m just thankful no one was hurt. We are blessed we all survived,” Barb Shearer said.

The Shearers have rented the home for the past five years from Bonnie Wilshusen, of York.

Wilshusen was at the site Tuesday cleaning, along with many other family, friends and neighbors.

“I’m just overwhelmed. I can understand people when they say it’s a surreal feeling. It is still sinking in,” Wilshusen said.

The farm buildings on the site also suffered a lot of damage. A semitrailer was turned over on its side, walls of storage buildings were torn off or blown out. A quarter of a mile pivot was lost, and numerous trees were broken.

Jason Fellows, Wilshusen’s son-in-law, was farming the grounds Monday when the tornado started to form. He was in the driveway with his father-in-law when they realized the tornado was heading right for them. They jumped in their vehicles and took off in opposite directions. They said they could feel the force of the winds dragging them back, but they did make it to safety.

Jackson County Tornado Sirens Signaled As a Precaution

When she stepped outside of her Sandstone Township home Tuesday night, she saw some very dark clouds.

"I'm going to go outside and check things out because the clouds are looking really weird," She told her husband. "I just got out on the porch and it came right over the house just going like this."

She's certain what she saw was the beginnings of a tornado, so she called 911.

Turns out Claudia was not alone.

"There were many calls," Undersheriff Chris Kuhl said.

According to the undersheriff, Jackson County dispatch got a lot of calls Tuesday night, including some from some firefighters who are trained weather spotters.

"We started getting reports that there was activity in the sky and appeared funnel clouds were generating," Kuhl said.

But, the National Weather Service had not issued a tornado warning. So, it became a judgment call.

"We only had a few minutes to make a decision," he said. "We felt this was the best, safe-minded approach to not wait for the National Weather Service,"

Right then and there, all of the county's tornado siren's were activated, but no tornado ever touched down.

Kuhl said emergency responders knew the severe was only in one part of the county, but the way their system works, if you warn one person you have to warn everyone. He admits that might have inconvenienced some Tuesday night, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

"We'll do whatever we can to make sure the public is safe," Kuhl said. "It's our mission. We'd much rather be conservative than have a funnel cloud develop into a tornado."

Kuhl said they'd do it again if the conditions were ripe, DeLano backs that decision one hundred percent.

"I think it's a darn good idea," she said.

Kuhl said it's only happened twice in his career that they've made the judgment call on the local level without the call of the National Weather Service. But they felt strongly about the safety of the citizens Tuesday night especially with so many sporting events and people enjoying the outdoors.

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