Well the first series of phone calls and reports started about 8:30am and it ended with “We are going to the basement.” This was a hard thing for me to hear since I am 3hours away from home.
I don’t have a clear picture of what took place in my small section of Somerset County but my family was setting on the porch trying to cool off since a round of thunderstorms had taken the power grid down. Then a very strange calm was followed by very low dark clouds and what appeared to be a funnel cloud bearing down on the barn.
Since it is dark I don’t have a clear picture if any buildings suffered any damage. I do know the corn fields took a direct hit and the damage is bad with over 5 acres of sweet corn flatten. Since the field corn goes over the hill they are not sure how much was damage.
Since I’m not home my family is making it through the night with battery lanterns. They don’t know how to turn on the emergency generators and power is not expected to be restored until late Friday.
So it will be a long night for my safely in hotel and my family sitting in near dark at the farm. Since we have a well water is now a precious commodity. No power No water. However being use to bad winter storms we do keep a emergency stock pile, enough to use for limited cooking and flushing toilets for at least three days.
My only real concern is that the freezers can hold out until I get home or the power is restored. I can’t place a true figure on the loss in crops but if in fact the sweet corn is as bad as I think the loss will be in the thousands of dollars since it was not ready to harvest yet.
While I can’t confirm a tornado my family states 100% there was a funnel cloud and I doubt they will sleep much tonight. I do have limited contact with cell phone but everything else is out of service.
I know we got hit with a pretty good storm in Lancaster at around 7:00pm while I was at dinner. I drove to E-town so I could go t
I have family back in Pittsburgh (about 1.5 hours West of Sommerset) and they did in deed get nailed hard yesterday, both in the morning and afternoon. Dad said it was really nasty for most of the day.
Thanks for thinking of me Chief and the rest of you too. We had some light wind damage to the barn and did loose 5 acres of sweet corn. The good news is the family was just fine but a little rattled as the storm passed over. From what I heard from my family and friends thick darn clouds rolled through around 7:45 PM turning day into night and that they hung low to the grown. Wind did gust locally up to 60-mile p/hr and over 4 & ½ inches of rain fell during the morning and evening storms.
Tomorrow will be a chain saw day along with re-hanging the barn doors. The market value of the corn will be missed since it doubles as the girl’s spending money and winter-feed money for the cattle. At least the power is back on and we have it far better than those in the Pittsburgh and Johnstown area that had to deal with flood water.
Once again thank you for your concern we have a strong family and hard times are never a stranger when you farm. We just learn to take the bad times with the good times. I’m just glad it is not the main moneymaker for us though it does get harder each year to continue but that is life and I wouldn’t want it any other way. It builds a strong family and for that I am thankful.
