There were surprised expressions on some faces in town July 7 when a twister developed on 99 Mile Hill and tore the roofing off of Andre’s Electronic Experts building (formerly KSM Communications).
The astonished staff members say they thought a big truck had crashed on the highway when they heard loud noises they couldn’t identify.
Andre’s employee Sheila Mongey says she didn’t know what had happened at first, when the twister peeled off the roofing and rolled it up like a sardine can.
“It was like a freight train driving over the roof. The whole building started shaking, the roof was shaking; at first we though it must be a truck that lost its logs, or something like that.”
It was all over in a flash, but those 10-15 seconds were “trippy,” she adds.
Employee Shane Paterson says it got “really quiet” afterwards, so he went outside to see what happened and found there was only a slight breeze remaining.
However, he discovered there was wood blown over a path of more than 100 feet across, Paterson says, adding it landed on both sides of the building.
Susan Fryer, a nearby resident on Scott Road, says she saw the whole thing develop.
“The wind started to kick up and I saw some dust going into the air, and then all of sudden I realized this dust is getting longer and longer, and I thought, ‘oh my goodness, this is like a little twister happening’.”
Fryer notes she watched as it came close to the south wall of Andre’s.
“It just started to move and it got longer and longer and it just pushed right up against the building, and then there were two-by-fours flying in the air and the metal roof just folded right over and was flapping.”
Fryer says she isn’t sure how large the twister was, but notes it was definitely taller than the two-storey building.
Performance All-Terrain & Rentals owner Jim Kirby says he saw the twister go down the hill on Highway 97 and estimates it was 10-15 feet wide at the base.
“It was packing a bunch of debris, nothing big, but more garbage and paper and things like that.”
Kirby adds he saw vehicles drive right through it that were getting blown about, including one with a trailer that seemed to be “rocking around a bit” from the force of the twister.
“It had a bit of power to it. It was definitely more than the average little dust cloud that we see blow through.”
