“The trailer was from one house and the truck was from another house and it picked them up and threw them down to the highway,” Stevens said. “We will see metal from Black River at City Lake Road and (Route) OO. It’s over a mile away.”
Stevens said Black River Electric Co-op did not just lose their buildings but they lost an entire fleet of trucks.
The National Weather Service report states it believes the tornado reached peak intensity, with approximately 150 mph winds, when it reached the Black River Electric Co-op.
“Here the tornado ripped a well-built canopy from between two small warehouses, completely destroyed one of these small warehouses, and then completely destroyed a larger steel warehouse attached to the main office,” the NWS report read. “The steel warehouse was very well constructed, with steel I-beams approximately 1 foot in width, bolted into the concrete foundation roughly every 20 feet. These beams spanned the roof of the structure and supported a thick, crimped sheet metal exterior.”
Stevens said Cherokee Pass Volunteer Firefighter Shane Adams spent four hours with a demolition saw and rescue truck cutting steel beams to get the BREC trucks out. While the trucks were not usable, the crews needed their tools from the trucks in order to get to work to restore power to the town.
“All of the trucks were cocked over to the side and shoved into each other,” Stevens said. “They were dragging them out one at a time just to get the tools out. Some of the trucks only had windows popped out but with the steel falling on the booms, all of the trucks will have to be recertified before they can be put in use again.”