A Caineville restaurateur says a tornado struck his establishment Sunday afternoon, destroying a deck and bandstand, and also damaged his motor home and boat.
Dennis Lierd said he and his daughter Chavun, 10, were the only ones near the Luna Mesa Restaurant when the twister hit."The wind was barely blowing, then all of a sudden (the tornado) touched down about 100 yards to the west," Lierd said. "I could see a funneling motion moving toward my restaurant. Limbs were flying out of the trees."
Moments later, a pile of lumber was airborne. "I had 48 to 60 pieces of plywood, and it was flinging them about like a deck of cards. And 300 2-by-4s flying the same way, just like a bunch of matchsticks," he said.
Chavun screamed as Lierd ran and closed the front door.
Lierd looked out an eastside window in time to see the funnel rise 60 feet and come down on his motor home.
"It lifted it off the ground 11/2 to 2 feet and slammed it down on its side. It picked my boat up and threw it sideways into a fence. Then it headed over a big, open field next to my place, a big old cloud circling with lots of stuff in it - papers, tree limbs and dirt."
That sounded like a tornado to National Weather Service meteorologist William Alder, although he is not discounting the possibility it could be a microburst, a strong downdraft produced by a thun-der-storm.