See it here: Tornado rips through Washington Terrace neighborhood, homes heavily damaged, some schools closed Friday

WASHINGTON TERRACE, Utah, Sept. 22, 2016 (Gephardt Daily) — A small tornado touched down in the Riverdale-Washington Terrace area Thursday afternoon, and several homes were damaged by the strong winds.

In the aftermath of the storm, thousands of homes were without power. Rocky Mountain Power reported outages in areas of Uintah, Ogden, South Ogden, South Weber, Riverdale and Washington Terrace. Power also was out in areas of Clearfield, Clinton, Hooper, Layton, Syracuse and West Point.

Weber School District announced on its website at 8:58 p.m. Thursday that Bonneville High School, T.H. Bell and Roosevelt and Washington Terrace elementary schools will be closed Friday.  “This cancellation was at the request of law enforcement and city personnel due to unsafe conditions within the city,” according to the district’s statement.

Rocky Mountain Power’s automated system first notified area residents that power would be restored by 7 p.m. But once crews had a chance to assess the damage to power lines and poles, that estimate was pushed out further, and ultimately the power company asked residents to be prepared to be without electricity at least through Thursday night and into Friday morning.

Margaret Oler, spokeswoman for Rocky Mountain Power, told Gephardt Daily that crews from other areas of Utah, as well as Idaho and Wyoming, are on the scene.

“There are so many points of damage,” Oler said, “it will take time to get power restored. Trees are in the power lines, debris is in the lines, poles are down. The outage is extensive.”

Weber County Sheriff’s Sgt. Matt Jensen said the scene on Thursday was “chaos.”

“Trees were everywhere. Every (emergency worker) who was home from work came in on their day off to help. We’re still going door to door,” Jensen said of the response to the tornado in Washington Terrace.

Video posted on YouTube by Neil Essig seems to show a faint funnel cloud, which touched down briefly and caused electric transformers to explode. It happened at about 3:40 p.m., Essig said. See his video below.

Jensen said, “People couldn’t believe it. None of us could. When I got the call, my first thought was, ‘No, we don’t get tornadoes here!'”

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A tornado causes extensive damage to homes in Washington Terrace Utah Sept 22 2016 Photo Gephardt DailyPatrick Benedict

Jensen didn’t think anyone was seriously injured, but some people had cuts from flying glass, he said. And there was concern about people with heart conditions, as the suddenness and fury of the tornado was unsettling. Jensen said most people were checked out at the scene.

“There were deputies in the area,” he said, “so they got here (Washington Terrace) pretty fast.”

A tornado causes extensive damage to homes in Washington Terrace, Utah, Sept. 22, 2016. Photo: Gephardt Daily/Patrick Benedict
A tornado causes extensive damage to homes in Washington Terrace Utah Sept 22 2016 Photo Gephardt DailyPatrick Benedict

Paul and Gaelynn Sewell’s home was virtually destroyed by the tornado.

Gaelynn Sewell said half the roof is gone and the remainder is split. “The tornado came through the front door area — that part of the roof is gone,” she said.

Her husband, Paul, saw the tornado through the bedroom window, so he had a moment’s notice. Gaelynn was in a hallway and said when she heard the initial crash of glass, she thought the rain had broken the window. Then the insulation from the roof began blowing and sifting through the house.

“It looked like smoke,” Gaelynn said.

She was cut by broken glass, which she said was everywhere. And her back is sore where she thinks something hit her as the house was being torn apart.

The Sewell’s two children are young adults. Their son, Parker, was in school and daughter, Morgan, was at work when the tornado hit, but they were quickly called home. Gaelynn said they were devastated when they saw what was left of their house.

“We lost everything. It’s just sort of hitting us,” Gaelynn said. “All our treasures, everything is gone. And we always planned that this would be our ‘forever’ house, so we did a lot of updates and put in special features. It’s just gone.”

If there’s a bright side, it’s that no one was seriously injured. “The important thing is that everyone’s all right. It could have been so much worse,” Gaelynn said. “Everything else is just ‘stuff.'”

Even their cat, who was missing for an hour, was finally found hiding under a bed.

And she is very thankful for the high school students who immediately came over to help and make sure everyone was ok. Neighbors tend to look out for one another in “the Terrace.”

Gaelynn especially wanted to credit a young friend of the family named Jaden Cooper. “He was amazing. He was at a friend’s house down the street and came running to help. He brought me shoes to put on, and told me I need to get my cuts looked at. He was so concerned.”

The Sewells are staying with Gaelynn’s sister while they sort things out and decide what to do next. The Red Cross was on hand to help others in the area.

Residents of Washington Terrace, Utah survey the damage to their neighborhood after a tornado touched down on Spet. 22, 2016. Gephardt Daily/Patrick Benedict
Residents of Washington Terrace Utah survey the damage to their neighborhood after a tornado touched down Sept 22 2016 Gephardt DailyPatrick Benedict

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