HB 7.1.2021 FINAL

Page 2 — Thursday, July 1, 2021 — The Hastings Banner

fell on their house.

Michael Gutierrez said his family was at

home when the tornado hit, but it happened so

fast they never had time to get into the base-

ment.

The local tornado siren didn’t go off until

the tornado was long gone, Gutierrez said.

The National Weather Service determined

that the Freeport area tornado was an EF-0,

and the Lake Odessa tornado an EF-1, based

on a survey of the damage of the property.

“It’s been several years since we’ve had a

multiple tornado day,” NWS Meteorologist

Walt Felver said.

The storm also brought heavy rains over

the weekend, and Felver said between 4½ and

5½ inches of rain fell on the Hastings area

between Friday and Sunday.

And that added up to roughly a quarter of

the total precipitation that the area has seen all

year, Felver added.

But, since the area was in a drought, the

rainfall did not cause major flooding.

“The ground was so dry leading up to this

event that a lot of it soaked into the ground,”

Felver said.

If the weekend’s storm had happened last

year, when the water table was already high

from a wet spring, it would have been a differ-

ent story.

“It would have been catastrophic flooding

probably – at least major,” Felver said.

“If this had just happened last spring, it

would have been a disaster,” Barry County

Road Commission Director of Engineering

Jake Welch agreed.

Instead, Welch said, “We kind of fared pret-

ty darn good.”

Barry County didn’t see anything like the

high winds produced just a few miles from its

northern border – and there were few fallen

tree limbs.

Welch said there was minor flooding on

some roads, but it wasn’t worse than they’ve

seen in previous springs.

Barry County Drain Commissioner Jim

Dull said flooding is at about the same level

as two years ago.

The water is about 3½ to 4 feet higher than

usual in most places, Dull said, and the lake

docks have disappeared under the water.

“... It’s so much water in a short amount of

time,” Dull said.

While there is more rain scheduled next

week, officials expect the water to recede by

that time.

“I hate saying that, but I think the worst of

it’s past us,” Welch said.

A drone photo shows the path of the Lake Odessa tornado through several farm fields. (Photo by Ingham County Office of
Homeland Security and Emergency Management)

A trailer is overturned and smashed open near a torn tree. (Photo by Clarksville Fire Department)

A map of the path taken by the EF-1 tornado, created by the National Weather

Service.

An EF-0 tornado touched down east of Freeport and lasted for two minutes last

Saturday afternoon. (Map by National Weather Service)

A boat belonging to the Gutierrez family was flipped over and ripped apart by the

tornado. (Photo by Yzabella Lab)

A large tree crashed onto a power pole on the east side of Jordan Lake Road, just

south of Bippley Road. (Photo by Yzabella Lab)

An uprooted tree fell on the house of Janelle and Andy Eastridge. The damage from the tornado was so extensive the couple

may need to tear down the house and build a new one. (Photo by Yzabella Lab)

TORNADO, continued from page 1

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