MURRAY — There are so many things that one could select as subject matter for remembering the evening of Feb. 24, 2018, in Murray and Calloway County.
That was the night not one, but two different tornadoes touched down in the county. The first struck barns and silos and outbuildings near the Protemus community of southwest Calloway County near the Graves County line. Then, minutes later, after that twister lifted into the clouds, the same storm is believed to have been responsible for dropping another tornado just west of the Bel Air Shopping Center on Murray’s south side, eventually ripping through several houses on streets such as Circarama, Fairlane and Earl Court, names that became inextricably linked with the disaster in the days that followed.
Two-thirds of the roof to the Southside Shopping Center on South 12th was ripped away, and parts of it landed as many as 500 yards away. Of course, there was also Stocky, the iconic steer mascot at the Sirloin Stockade restaurant that was blown on its side, leaving everyone in awe because the display weighs at least 5,000 pounds.
Yet, for Calloway County Emergency Management Director Bill Call, there is one thing in particular he still remembers with pride.
“Somehow, even with all of the destruction that we saw with this, nobody was hurt. That absolutely was the best thing to all of this,” Call said. “I’d actually seen more destruction from other storms, such as roofs being taken off. However, I don’t remember (another time) where you had an object slamming into the front of a house and basically destroying it.”
That is exactly what happened on Earl Court, a quiet cul de sac just off Fairlane. The house was that of Allen and Rachelle Jones, who had been enjoying a fairly quiet Saturday evening when their youngest son, Matthew, noticed something strange outside.
“He said that something about the wind didn’t seem right, so I then went to the door and looked toward where 12th Street would be and I couldn’t believe it,” Allen said Friday, recalling what had to seem like a nightmare, but was all too real. “I started seeing the green light of the transformers exploding and, as that happened, I could see the funnel. It was white. Then I had to take my attention off it because I saw something in the sky. It looked like a car and it was headed right for the house.”
It was not a car, as it turned out. However, what is believed to be a large chunk of the roof from the shopping center soon was smashing into the front door, with enough force to buckle the one-story house. However, the Jones’s were able to get to a place safely away from the impact zone, emerging injury free.
Still, scars remain.
“If I know it’s storming near here or storms are being forecast for the next day, I admit it, I get nervous now,” Rachelle said. “A year ago, I wasn’t like that. That night changed everything for me.”
“The two words she says now when bad weather is forecast are ‘Oh great!’” he said.
As intense as the experience was for some, the tornado was only ranked an EF-1 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale that measures tornado intensity, producing winds estimated at 110 mph. National Weather Service investigators the next day determined the tornado was no more than 100 yards wide and was probably narrower than that in most places.
For the Jones’s, though, it was more than strong enough to turn their lives upside down. Allen said that in the wake of the twister, the family “just couldn’t stay here,” meaning finding another place to call home was in order. Now, they have settled into a comfortable home in the northern part of the county.
They constantly discuss their plan of action in case Mother Nature turns her wrath on the community again. This is a topic about which Allen will preach to anyone who will listen.
“Listen! You’ve got to have a plan, but most importantly, you have to know that plan and you have to execute that plan,” he said. “When you’re watching the TV and they’re telling you not to try and outrun something like this? They’re right. You can’t.
“I will never forget that Sunday afternoon when (NWS Warning Coordination Meteorologist) Rick Shanklin showed me the radar printouts from the night before, and how at 7:40 and 20 seconds there was nothing, then at 40 seconds, there it was! These things move so fast. They’re on you before you can act, and we are real lucky we weren’t hurt.”
“You feel like that was one of the worst days of your life,” Rachelle said, but then you look at so many things that came from that and you realize how blessed we really are. You’ve got to give all the glory to God for keeping us safe and guiding us through it.”
Allen and Rachelle said they wish to thank the many people who rushed to their aid in the minutes, hours, days and weeks that followed the tornado. This included a Murray business delivering pizzas free of charge as the cleanup operation continued. Even Allen’s team with the Air Evac Lifeteam based in Mayfield made an impromptu landing at nearby Glendale Road Church of Christ, “just to see how we were and help out a little bit,” he said.
“This community is just so wonderful,” Rachelle said.
by John Wright (2019, Feb 23) Murray Ledger & Times
