Messenger-Inquirer from Owensboro, Kentucky • 1

7. Jl KWC beats Lees McRae 91-71, gets back to more pressing businessIB Clinton nominates Greenspan to 4th term at Fed; stocks plummet3A Partisan wrangling in Senate likely as General Assembly convenes1 0 jfr I Visit our Web site: www.messenger-inquirer.com OWENSBORO Also inside Nation: President Clinton opens Israeli-Syrian peace talks4A Sports: No. 1 Florida State beats Virginia Tech 46-29 in Sugar Bowl1 (Em IffiW 4 Vol.126, No. 5 WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 5, 2000 50C worse by dayMgWf wr. 7 A v- i y--.

"4. I'IFeI 1 1 111 houses destroyed; hundreds damaged By Keith Lawrence Messenger-Inquirer From the air, the most amazing thing is how much worse Monday's tornado could have been. But at ground zero on Tamarack Road, which resembles a battlefield, it's hard to believe no one was killed and only one person was seriously injured in the most devastating storm in Owensboro's 200-year history. The National Weather Service said the storm packed 180 mph winds and cut a swath half a mile wide and seven miles long across Owensboro and rural Daviess County. Richard Payne, Daviess County's emergency management director, called the tornado a "level 3" storm.

Levels 4 and 5 are "total destruction," he said. Rick Cox, regional director of the state's Emergency Management Agency, said a door-to-door survey found 111 houses destroyed, 257 with major damage and 534 with minor damage. That survey covered 80 percent of the city. City Manager Ron Payne estimated that 35 businesses were damaged. "Winn-Dixie was all but destroyed," he said.

There was still no estimate of the total property damage, but Ron Payne said it will run into the millions. Lt. Gov. Steve Henry, an Owensboro native, came home Tuesday to inspect the damage. An estimated 9,000 of OMU's 27,000 customers were without electricity Tuesday morning.

But OMU managed to restore power to 1,000 homes by nightfall. The company warned that it may be next week before all power is restored. But if the 4:10 p.m. storm had stayed on the ground rather than leap-frogging across the city or if it had struck an hour later the devastation would have been much worse. The tornado appears to have first touched down along Kentucky 81 just south of St Martin Church.

Then it swept northeast along Keller Road, damaging several houses, skipping along Carter Road, jumping over subdivisions on the south side of Southtown Boulevard and crashing headlong into the subdivisions west of Apollo f- TIio Tornado DyTTis (lumbers Date: Jan. 3, 2000 Time: 4:10 p.m. Location: First strike at Tamarack and Carter Force: F3 on the Fujita-Pearson Intensity Scale Wind speed: 180 mph Number of structures with moderate damage: 534 Number of structures with severe damage: 257 Number of structures destroyed: 1 1 1 Number of OMU customers without electricity: 8,000 Number of people treated at Owensboro Mercy Health System: 15, one in serious condition Estimated damage to OMU: $2 million Estimated damage to Daviess County schools: $4.2 million Estimated damage to city schools: $27,000 Amount in city's disaster contingency fund: $1.7 million Cancellations The postal service will continue to deliver mail in all areas not affected by Monday's tornado. For those areas affected by storm damage and high water. Page2A The Owensboro City Commission meeting today has been canceled.

A new date has not been set. Classes in the Daviess County and Owensboro Catholic Consolidated School system have been canceled for today. Intersession classes in the Owensboro City Schools have been canceled for today and Thursday. Noon Rotary Club meeting today has been canceled. The Family YMCA is closed but will hold its Holiday Camp for school-age children at the HealthPark on Ford Avenue.

Details, Page 2A City garbage pickup is canceled for the rest of the week. The city transit system will not run until Monday. On ths Insids: Cleaning supplies, food and offers to lend a hand began pouring in Tuesday morning to the Big Rivers Chapter of the American Red Cross and The Salvation Army. Page 2A Damage from the tornado is much worse than anticipated, city officials say. Page ID.

The city and the county are operating under states of emergency. Page 1D. Owensboro's weather turned bitter Tuesday, sending temperatures tumbling with snow showers filling the air. Page 2D. The tornado forced three local retirement centers to evacuate Tuesday, not because of storm damage, but because of cold.

Page 2D. Four schools in the Daviess County Public Schools suffered a total of $4.2 million in damage. Page 2D. Owensboro residents poured into groceries Tuesday, stocking up on emergency supplies, and stormed fast-food restaurants. Page 3D.

From Tamarack Park to east Owensboro, residents of stricken neighborhoods begin assessing the damage and cleaning up. Pages 4D, 5D. ir. John Dunham, Messenger-Inquirer, Scott Pulliam of 3439 Surrey Drive East walks through what's left of his home Tuesday after a tornado ripped through Owensboro the previous afternoon. "I was home by myself and jumped in the bathtub.

Five seconds later the roof came off. Thank God for family and friends," Pulliam said. Emergency Phone numbers Owensboro Mercy Health Systems (270) 688-2000 Sportscenter (emergency shelter) (270)687-8330 Daviess County Emergency Management Agency (270) 685-8448 Sheriff 91 1 or (270) 685-8444 (business) Daviess County Health Department (270) 687-7744 or (270) 687-7747 Messenger-Inquirer News Tip Line (270)691-7205 Western Kentucky Gas Customer Service (888) 954-4321 Emergency (800) 482-8429 Kenergy (270)926-4141 OMU (270) 825-3200 Red Cross (270) 683-2438 Regional Water Resource Agency (270) 687-8440 City of Owensboro (270) 687- 4444 Owensboro Police Department 911 or (270) 687-8806 (business) mas decorations from shattered trees. "I lived in Oklahoma 14 years, right in the middle of tornado alley, and I never saw anything like this," Ron Payne said as he drove through the area on an inspection tour. OMlTs headquarters just west of the U.S.

60 bypass lost part of its roof and a few windows. The tornado scattered power lines across the bypass at Tamarack, and traffic was inching along See DaylightPage 2A High School. The storm skipped through the residential neighborhoods, randomly smashing houses and uprooting trees but sparing many other homes that lay in its path. The Seventh Day Adventist Church at 2288 Tamarack Road looked like a bombed-out shell from World War II Europe. At Tamarack and Gemini just east of Apollo the storm swerved across Tamarack.

Roofs were peeled from houses on all three corners. Insulation hung like Christ OMU says 8,000 still without power Education section The Education section that normally appears in Wednesday's paper was taken out today to expand our coverage of Monday's tornado. Index Movies6B Opinion7A Record s2C Region1 -4C Sports1 -4B Television6B Ann landers4C Astrology4C Classified4-8C Comics5B Deal of the Day2A Markets4B Some won't get electricity for 4 or 5 days or longer By Steve Vied Messenger-Inquirer Some areas of Owensboro hit by Monday's tornado will not have electric power restored for four or five days. In the hardest-hit areas, such as Tamarack Park and the area around Kentucky Wesleyan College, power may not flow for six or seven days. That was the word Tuesday as Owensboro scrambled to recover from a vicious twister that destroyed or damaged hundreds of homes and businesses.

Power outages caused by damaged substations and countless downed utility poles and lines left huge portions of town in the dark Monday afternoon. By midafternoon Tuesday, about 8,000 Owensboro Municipal Utilities customers still were without power, down from 9,000 immediately after the storm. OMU threw everything it had at the emergency and called in crews from as far away as Nashville to help. But progress was slow as workers battled freezing temperatures made worse by stiff winds and just the sheer enormity See PowerPage 2A Xj, 28 pages, four sections I mi li ill! hi li Jonn Dunnam, Messenger-Inquirer 11111' 57211 Ave. A large tree broke the line Monday when it was uprooted as a tornado swept across Western Kentucky Gas employee Dan Simon, left, takes a quick break while digging around a broken gas line Tuesday at 2828 South Griffith HH'.