Tornado tosses cars, damages buildings
Weather service confirms low-grade twister touchdown
MONTGOMERY TWP » A touchdown happened in Montgomery Township on Monday, but it had nothing to do with the Eagles or the Seahawks.
The National Weather Service confirmed Tuesday that an EF-0 tornado touched down and damaged several businesses on Monday afternoon.
“It was bad. The wind, and the pressure of everything — I thought the windows were going to blow out,” said neighbor Barry Macort on Tuesday.
“I could feel it coming through, and then my table started swirling, and was like, ‘Holy...’ I hoped it didn’t go through the window, and it didn’t,” he said.
According to the National Weather Service, the tornado touched down just east of the Route 309 northbound onramp to the Route 202 Parkway around 3:47 p.m. Monday.
“As the tornado crossed the parkway, two small trees were uprooted on its northbound side. Outdoor wooden picnic benches and tables at the Texas Roadhouse restaurant were picked up and tossed a few hundred feet, breaking the front window of the nearby but now-shuttered Noboru restaurant,” said the weather service in a statement released Tuesday.
“Circulation associated with this tornado then pulled air-handling equipment from the roof of this restaurant and tore off siding from the northeastern edge of the building,” NWS said.
No injuries were reported.
On Tuesday afternoon, that air-handling equipment could be seen sitting in the parking lot behind the vacant building, as exposed insulation waved in the breeze where the building had been damaged. While a crew of contractors assessed the damage, and declined to comment, Macort walked over from his home on nearby Susan Circle and described the scene from the day before.
“I’m sitting inside, and that wind was blowing so hard, and I thought it was going to blow. All of a sudden, the table moved, and I thought ‘That thing is coming through the window’,” Macort said.
His outdoor picnic table stayed in his yard, but NWS said Tuesday that six to eight cars parked in the lots adjacent to Noboru and the nearby Texas Roadhouse restaurant were “shaken and/or tossed as the tornado moved through,” and branches of several trees in the area were snapped.
“Several metal light posts were also bent at the base in and around these parking lots as a result of the wind and/or flying debris, and the poles supporting two stop signs were bent and dislodged as well,” NWS said.
Those poles and stop signs could be seen sitting in the parking lots of the two empty restaurants Tuesday afternoon, in front of construction tape on the nearby Staybridge Suites hotel where a front entrance supporting pole was also damaged.
“As the tornado continued to travel in a northeasterly direction, the circulation slowly weakened, with some minor roof damage to the Costco building. After less than one minute on the ground, the tornado lifted off just north of Upper State Road, in the vicinity of a local quarry,” NWS said.
According to NWS, the tornado’s estimated maximum wind speed was 70 miles per hour, below the 86 MPH needed to classify an EF-1 tornado. The maximum path width was estimated at 100 yards and path length estimated at half a mile.
In a statement Tuesday, Montgomery Township’s police and emergency services departments said township emergency staff were assisted at the scene by personnel from the Montgomery County Department of Public Safety, numerous area fire companies including Horsham, Colmar, Fairmount, Chalfont, Warrington, and Hilltown, and the Volunteer Medical Service Corps of Lansdale.
“My daughter in Fort Washington called me after, and she said ‘ We got rain... but it wasn’t like you got,” Macort said.