Tornado carnage prevented evacuation attempt by Matthew and mum Kathy
“There was no ‘ducking for cover’ when it happened. To be honest, we were all rooted to the spot. It started and then it was over so quickly that nobody really knew what to do.
“Nobody could run outside because that’s where the danger was but nobody was wanting to stay in the building because we thought it was going to collapse. Everyone was kind of frozen. “They reckon the whole tornado lasted two or three minutes. But if you were actually in it, it is reckoned that it lasted around eight to 10 seconds.
“My mum, who was also working at the place, was trying to evacuate people through the back door. But the place was such a mess and it was absolute carnage out the back with the door and everything being smashed.”
Matthew also told the Sligo Weekender of how a couple who were inside a parked car just before the tornado struck were lucky to escape with their lives.
He added: “We looked out the front and there was a car out there which had the roof of the building next door go straight through the windscreen.
“I went out to see the car and wondered what I was going to see because I wouldn’t have any real stomach for any of that. When I got there, the two passengers who were in the car were out of it – the driver was covered in blood and his wife had a few cuts and bruises.
“Nothing too bad but miraculous considering what had happened. The roof just happened to miss them as they had just got out of the car when it happened.”
There were others who also had a lucky escape. “There was also an anniversary mass that day in the church,” continued Matthew. “There were some people from that in the pub who were literally just in for two minutes with everyone else at the community centre for tea and coffee.
“They hadn’t left yet but it was a miracle that there wasn’t anybody on their way from the centre to the Leitrim Inn because they were all coming up for a meal. Had they been, they probably would have been dead.”