Eldon Hit by Tornado
News
On Wednesday, May 22, at about 10:30 p.m. an EF-3 tornado hit the town of Eldon, causing extensive damage to the central business district and one residential area. There were no deaths or serious injuries reported.Rev. Joan DeBoe was home at the Eldon UMC parsonage when the sirens went off. The house doesn’t have a basement, so she and her husband sought refuge in a tiled shower stall. It was quiet.
“We heard something heard something hit the house really hard, but whatever it was didn’t some through the wall,” she said.
Her house lost one of its porch supports and some shutters but overall faired well. Her backyard was a “mangled mess” of downed tree limbs and powerlines.
The next morning when they came outside about 6 a.m. their cars were surrounded by large limbs, but fortunately the limbs hadn’t hit the cars so their vehicles were unharmed. A few doors down from DeBoe many homes were severely damaged. Some just around the corner look to be a total loss.
A large number of volunteers were at the town the next day assisting with cleanup. When DeBoe was out checking on other things she returned home to find the limbs in her yard had already been taken care of by volunteers who were going house to house.
“I wasn’t here, so I’m not sure who it was and I wasn’t able to thank them,” she said.
Due to extensive powerline damage the electricity was not restored at DeBoe’s house until late in the evening on May 24. The church was not damaged, and no church members were displaced from their homes.