Clay Township home smashed by tree in Sunday storms
Loretta Enos, 51, was sitting on the couch in her home Sunday, June 14, in Clay Township when she heard a crack. Next thing she knew, there was a tree in her living room.
Enos ran to the bedroom of the Beaver Dam Road home and waited for the arrival of Gage Ariss, an assistant chief with the West Sunbury Volunteer Fire Department, who was the first to respond and helped her to safety around 6 p.m. during a tornado warning that stretched across the county from Worth to Fairview townships, her daughter Kaylee Enos said in a Monday interview.
A spokesman for the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh said its crews may survey the area Tuesday morning for potential evidence of a tornado.
“Thankfully, she is safe, but the damage left her without a place to call home,” Kaylee Enos wrote in a GoFundMe for her mother, which had raised $140 in its first 17 hours.
Kaylee Enos said her mother had been raised in the home “filled with memories and a deep sense of belonging.” The tree destroyed the home, taking out the living room, bedroom and bathroom in the process.
The home did not have insurance, but her mother has a place to stay for a time, Kaylee Enos said.
The tree fell during the most severe portion of the storms between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m., according to the weather service spokesman. He said there were “plenty” of reports of wind damage across the northern region of Butler County.
Further south, wind speeds peaked at 43 mph at 6:05 p.m. at Pittsburgh-Butler Regional Airport, the spokesperson said.
West Sunbury Fire Chief Curt Mershimer said his department received four other calls around the same time as the tree crashed through the trailer. The majority of them were in Clay Township in the area of Route 8 and Muddy Creek Drive.
“There was significant damage in that area,” Mershimer said, adding Shroyer Mill Road was also hit hard.
Unionville Volunteer Fire Company responded to many of the same calls, and the two companies were backing each other up all night, Mershimer said.
“Fortunately, we had a good crew show up last night and were also assisted by Unionville,” Mershimer said. “We were closely watching the radar and the weather forecast.”
Slippery Rock Volunteer Fire Company and Rescue Team also responded to about five calls related to storm damage. Emergency services throughout the county responded to 28 calls related to storm damage in a 2.5-hour period between 5:45 and 7 p.m., according to Butler County Emergency Services dispatch records.
Seven calls for downed trees or wires were reported between 5:45 and 6 p.m., 16 were reported between 6 and 7 p.m., and another seven were reported before 12:20 a.m., according to dispatch records.
The storms left more than 800 residences without power Monday morning throughout the county. Central Electric Cooperative reported 80 outages in Worth Township and 53 in Brady Township.
First Energy Corporation reported 688 outages in the county with about 200 in the areas of Jefferson, Winfield and Buffalo townships, at least 61 in Worth Township, more than 30 in Center Township and more than 60 between Muddy Creek and Franklin townships in the north and Penn in the south.
By 3 p.m. Monday, Central Electric was still reporting about 60 outages, and First Energy was reporting 518 county-wide.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch beginning at 1:25 p.m., which became a tornado watch then tornado warning around 5:30 p.m. The tornado warning lasted until 6 p.m., and the watch lasted until around 7:15 p.m., the spokesman said.
Between 0.4 and 0.9 inches of rain fell in the county on Sunday.
