National Weather Service confirms tornado in Lone Pine
When Betty Montgomery returned to her home on Brush Run Road at the corner of Chestnut Ridge Road in Amwell Township about 3:15 p.m. Friday, she went inside and tried to let her two dogs outside.
“But they wouldn’t go out,” said Montgomery who lives with her husband, Wayne Montgomery, in the 111-year-old farmhouse that is part of the Devore Farm. “They knew what was going to happen. The next thing I knew, things started flying past me.”
“I’ve heard that it sounds like a freight train and it does,” she added. “It only lasted three or four minutes, then it was just rain.”
The National Weather Service in Pittsburgh determined an EF-1 tornado with winds of about 90 mph went through the Lone Pine area Friday afternoon. NWS investigators will go to Greene County Sunday to assess damage to determine whether a report of a funnel cloud Friday night was a tornado.
The confirmed tornado, which went through Washington County about 3:20 p.m., did considerable damage to trees and structures in the area of Brush Run and Frazee roads.
Large hardwood and softwood trees had their trunks snapped and trees were stripped of their branches, according to the NWS.
The path continued across Sundecker Road, where trees were snapped or uprooted. Damage along the rest of the tornado’s route was limited to trees before ending near Daniels Run and Robinson roads, according to the NWS.
“Our garage is history. The tornado went right through it,” Betty Montgomery said. “But the cars parked next to the garage were not damaged.”
The force of the tornado bowed the garage door and shifted it about six-inches off the foundation and away from the house.
Lone Pine firefighters were able to rescue a cage from the garage with about 10 rabbits including some babies that had recently been born.
A backhoe propped up what was left of the roof of the garage allowing Wayne Montgomery along with friends and family to remove tools he kept stored inside the building.
Temporary repairs were being made to the roof, where shingles were torn off. The Montgomerys, along with their two dogs and other pets, were able to spend Friday night inside the home even though they had no electricity.
“The house is structurally sound,” she said, adding it was checked by a member of Washington County’s Department of Public Safety. “We have the pets and I didn’t want to leave them. The dogs were upset and just kind of looked at us.”
Betty Montgomery said it was overwhelming that so many people came to their home to help them with the cleanup. She said Lone Pine firefighters continued to help Saturday, living up to the department’s motto of “Neighbors helping neighbors.”
“I feel very fortunate,” she said since no one was injured and the damage was not worse. “I am sure it must have been divine intervention.”
At least two of their neighbors also had damage. The roof was torn from a porch at one home. Trees were uprooted at another home. Trees were tossed into an above-ground swimming pool.
The funnel cloud in Greene was reported about 8:55 p.m. Friday in Gilmore Township near Pine Bank.