A22-Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, November 18,1989
Hurricane-Speed Winds Rip Off Roofs, Tumble Buildings And Trees
BY LOU ANN GOOD
NEW HOLLAND (Lancaster
Co.) When the morning sky
turned black and lightening
exploded like the fourth of July
fireworks, Jonas Noltand his fami
ly rushed to the cellar of their East
Earl home on Thursday.
Pieces of tin, glass, insulation
and tree limbs sailed crazily
through the air.
It lasted about two minutes,”
Nolt said. ‘Then it got quiet.”
Only two minutes, but those
brief, hurricane-speed winds left a
path of destruction. Nolt’s chicken
house lay crumbled, trees were
twisted, and a roof was tom off his
pig pen.
Within minutes, friends and
neighbors gathered on N6lt‘s farm.
Soon chain saws were humming as
men cut up the fallen trees. Others
stacked the fallen boards and
gathered up the tin roof pieces.
Nolt said, “All I can say is that I
have a lot of good friends.”
During those same two minutes,
Nolt’s neigbor, Adam Oberholtzer
was in the house, oblivious to any
danger, when he heard a crack and
saw tin flying.
“It was pouring rain and dark.
The electric had gone off, but I
never suspected the storm was this
bad,” Oberholtzer said as he
surveyed his partially destroyed
bam. The roof had been ripped off,
and the one end had collapsed.
Broken telephone poles and fallen
Adam Oberhottzer and his sons Brian, 4, and Burnell, 6, surveyed part of the dam
age to their bam. The roof was ripped off and the one end collapsed, but the livestock
were unharmed.
The chicken houM of Jonas NoK collapsed, but within minutes of the storm, friends
snd neighbors were denning up. Said Nolt, “All I can say Is that we have good
friends.*’
electric wires lay among the tin
and lumber debris.
Several hours later, Oberholtzer
was smiling. “As long as it wasn’t
worse, I can’t complain,” he said.
In the lower level of the bam
Oberholtzer’s 56 cows and 20
young stock were unharmed.
His wife and two sons were not
hurt and for that, Oberholtzer is
thankful.
The New Holland area of the
county was the most severly
damaged. The roof was tom off of
Garden Spot Junior High School,
but students were not injured.
Many homes and buildings
reported damages and electric and
telephone service were disrupted.
Louis and Nettie Martin, New
Holland, were going about then
daily chores when the storm
struck. Louis said, “I was in the
bam and things got so noisy that I
went to the bam door to see what
was going on.”
He saw, the chimney on his
house tumble down. The house
roof and one of his bam roofs
peeled off.
Inside the house, Nettie watched
window panes blow out and
another chimney inside the house
crumbled.
She didn’t ran for cover. “I
didn’t even think about being
scared at the time,” Nettie said. “I
just went looking around to see
what all had happened.”
When the house roof disap
peared, windy gusts tore through
the house, but Martin said, “Fortu
nately it didn’t rain much after that
so we don’t have much damage on
the first and second floors.”
In addition to the house and bam
damage, a silo roof disappeared, a
wire com crib lay in a crumbled
Scenes like this were familiar In many yards of New Holland and East Earl residents
after hurricane-speed winds tore through the area. This Is only a part of Jonas Holt’s
yard in East Earl.
heap, and trees fell.
Family members and a carpent
er were working on the roof within
hours of the storm. Although it was
still windy, the sun was shining.
“Something like this makes you
a little quivery inside,” Nettie said.
“But I’m just glad it isn’t raining
now. I’ll be glad when everything
is fixed up again.”
Edwin Oberholtzer of East Earl said, “I plan to rebuilt. I
can’t complain as long as it wasn’t worst.”
His son Burnell stands with him.
Hours after the storm struck, the sun was shining and
helpful friends and neighbors were cleaning up the destruc
tion on many area farms and homes In Lancaster County.
The storm was blamed on a cold
front that spun off deadly torna
does in the South and Midwest and
continue up the East Coast.
A few claimed they saw a
funnel-shaped cloud, but the
weather station said it was
hurricane-speed winds that tore
across the county.