“It looks like at least one tornado came through Garrard and Madison counties,” Lanham said.
A canine unit from the Richmond Police Department was assisting with the search, said Sgt. Willard Reardon, RPD public information officer.
The rain did not let up Friday evening for the many local emergency officials who responded to two possible tornado touchdowns within the county. The storm, which came through at shortly after 5 p.m., caused several residents to be trapped inside severely damaged homes, as well as substantial damage to Richmond Fire Station No. 5 on Enterprise Drive, among many other reports. Three firefighters were inside the building when the storm struck, and the windshield of one fire truck was shattered, according to Richmond City Manager David Evans, who surveyed the damage from outside.
Posted: May 7, 2009 05:14 PM Updated: May 7, 2009 07:30 PM
By Elizabeth GentleHUNTSVILLE, AL (WAFF) - Wednesday's E-F2 tornado caused heavy damage in parts of Madison County.
The storms blew up so quickly, forecasters had only minutes to send out warnings.
Some residents say they didn't hear the weather sirens sound. The ones near Madison and Limestone County were activated, but the weather was so intense it was hard to hear them sound.
An E-F2 tornado spotted in Morgan and Limestone County quickly intensified as it approached Madison.
"It didn't look that impressive but then for about a 5 minute span it intensified it went away," said WAFF-48 Chief Meteorologist Brad Travis....
While twisters are relatively rare in the mountains, topography doesn't entirely protect the region from the violent storms, as a tornado warning issued Wednesday morning showed.
The region was lucky, as a line of storms passed through without spinning off a dangerous tornado or doing much damage.
“Oftentimes, the mountains are detrimental to the formation of the thunderstorms that can form tornadoes, but it's certainly still possible to have tornadoes across Western North Carolina,” said Blair Holloway, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service inGreer,S.C....