Tornado Confirmed in Pa. Pavilion Collapse
Updated: Oct 21, 2012, 2:22 PM EDT Associated Press
Shelter from Storm Collapses
PARADISE, Pa. — Authorities have confirmed that it was a tornado that blew through central Pennsylvania and caused a pavilion to collapse at a park, injuring 15 people and causing millions of dollars damage.
The EF-1 tornado touched down shortly after 8 p.m. Friday and over the next 10 minutes traveled about 16 miles from Fern Glen to Paradise in Lancaster County packing maximum winds of 100 to 110 mph, the National Weather Service said Sunday.
Officials said several dozen people attending a baseball game near Paradise sought shelter at the 40-foot by 40-foot pavilion, but high winds caused the structure to collapse. Police said 10 to 12 people were injured but the weather service put the injury total at 15. Authorities said most of the injuries were minor; one person had a broken bone.
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Above: A line of thunderstorms moving through Lancaster County, Pa. on Friday evening.
The tornado damage was sporadic and embedded within a larger area of straight-line wind damage," weather observers said.
Officials said 50 structures were damaged, including several barns destroyed, and two small high tension towers and thousands of trees were toppled. The county emergency management office estimates damage at $3 million to $5 million.
In Drumore Township, high-tension electrical towers bent to the ground left about 30,000 PPL customers without power, towers that PPL spokesman Jim Nulton said were designed to hold up during heavy snow and strong winds.
"It had to be pretty horrific," he told the (Lancaster) Sunday News.
Bonnie Henry told the paper that her Strasburg Township home was spared but the winds snapped off trees and collapsed a nearby barn.
"We never heard anything like that before," she said of the loud wind.
The tornado, which was up to 200 yards wide, wasn't on the ground the entire time, officials said.
"It more or less bounced up and down," said Randy Gockley, director of the county emergency management agency.
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