June 18, 2006.
Hartford Wisconsin.
Family escapes Florida storm, lands in Wisconsin tornado
HARTFORD, Wis. (AP) _ Tia Grandinetti and her family escaped stormy Florida by ending their vacation early and driving straight home to Hartford _ just in time for the tornado that hit Sunday and ripped apart roofs, smashed trees and toppled power lines.
"We got home at 9:30 a.m.," she said. By afternoon, "we were laying on the couch, watching the videotape from Florida. I told my husband, "It sounds like the tornado sirens are going off.'
"We ran upstairs and looked out the window. You could see the tornado just coming right at us."
Grandinetti stayed on the patio and videotaped some of the storm, while her husband, Tony, and their three children, ages 3, 5 and 7, stayed down the basement.
When the storm had passed, a deck box full of toys was gone but their house escaped damage, except for the wooden playhouse outside that was ripped apart, Grandinetti said.
Others weren't so lucky. Houses on both sides of theirs had damage.
The twister tore apart the roof of Lincoln Elementary School and damaged other buildings after hitting at 2:44 p.m. and leaving debris strewn around in this city of 8,200 people located 25 miles northwest of Milwaukee.
