CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The National Weather Service has confirmed there were two tornados and a microburst that touched down in Kanawha County during Tuesday’s storm.
An EF2 tornado with wind speeds of 115 mph had a non-continuous path for eight miles from Cross Lanes to just south of the community of Wallace near Sissonville.
The NWS storm team said it saw three notable damage locations over the eight miles including along Hidden Pines Lane in Cross Lanes, near Tyler Mountain Memory Gardens on Rocky Fork Road and south of Wallace along the 4000 block of Sissonville Drive and Whittington Road.
The storm team said the damage near Hidden Pines Lane is “where several large and healthy softwood trees were snapped at their bases along with uprooting of many large hardwood trees. Minor damage to homes was noted adjacent of this location along Hidden Cove.”
The EF1 tornado was located near the community of Quick and had confirmed winds of 110 mph.
The tornado had a very short non-continuous path. A number of trees were damaged in the 7000 block of Quick Road.
“Two mobile homes were destroyed at this location with uplift of roof and exterior wall damage. In addition, there was a utility pole that was snapped at the base,” the NWS report said.
The microburst, with maximum winds of 80 mph, occurred just south of Charleston in the Sherwood Forest area along Corridor G. Notable softwood and hardwood tree damage was observed, the NWS storm team report said.
Kanawha County Emergency Management Director C.W. Sigman said these tornados were different.
“Usually we have small, spin-up tornados that start up fast and end fast and there’s not a whole of consequence,” Sigman said. “There are a lot of trees down, some houses have trees down through the roofs and into the house, significant damage.”
Sigman said Kanawha County could have very easily had loss of life from the storms but didn’t.
“As bad as it is, we had no loss of life and no serious injuries we know due to the storm itself,” Sigman said. “I’m thankful folks did the right thing and sheltered for the most part. I’m happy about that. We were blessed.”
The weather service previously confirmed an EF2 tornado in the Fayette County community of Lavista where 130 mph winds destroyed more than 20 structures. That tornado hit Tuesday afternoon around 4:30 p.m.