Helicoptor Survey

I took a survey of the damage in the area with on of State Farm's VP's yesterday. We found some additional damage north of Windsor in a couple of subdivisions that were hit pretty hard. I was busy mapping and taking notes, so I didn't get very good pictures of the hardest hit areas when we were closer to the ground.

The ride in the helicopter was pretty cool - it was really smooth. For those of you aware of my fear of flying - I don't know why, but I was completely calm.

Windsor Tornado

Kent took this photo - I think the truck was on HWY 34

Kent took this one too - I think its just N of the office

A tornado hit at the State Farm office about noon on Thursday and continued on to Windsor, CO. It was a F3 tornado and called a wedge tornado which is very unusual for Colorado and even more unusual to form near the mountains. Windsor is my normal territory to handle with State Farm claims. I had been working a few miles away in the southern part of Fort Collins, so I missed it. The tornado brought large hail with it - up to baseball size. I was able get into the area of the tornado within an hour and took some photos. I just saw the office yesterday. There are three large buildings. They all are damaged. The flat roofs on the office are ballasted with rocks - some of which are the size of softballs. Those rocks were lifted along with the roofs with the tornado. There are lots of broken windows and damage to the roofs. The roofs are wavy - it looks like they were pulled up and laid back down. Cars and trucks were tossed in the parking lots. I think we normally have about 1,500 employees there.

The worst of the damage in Windsor is about 10 square blocks where homes will have to be completely rebuilt. There is significant damage to about 1/4 of the homes in Windsor and hail damage in about 3/4 of the town. There are 1600 residents in Windsor.

Cars at the office

Bank of Choice

Church in town