The Daily News from Lebanon, Pennsylvania • 5

Lebanon Daily News, Sunday, July 18, 2004 THE JULY 14TH TORNADO Behrens Drive era Coachman Lane Squire Lane Drive English Lantern Lane Road Carriage 3 Circle Manor am Coachman Lane Facing southwest, this aerial image, drawn from the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency's Web site, www.pema.state.pa.us, shows the destruction left by Wednesday's tornado. National Weather Service officials say the twister, packing winds approaching 200 mph, traveled from west to east, touching down in this area and traveling miles toward Cornwall and Quentin. Gene Simmers' 1809 farmhouse is at the left of the photo, near the end of Carriage Road. Note the seemingly undamaged homes across Manor Circle from the two houses that were leveled. Campbelltown's F-3.

twister not the worst area has ex experienced By all accounts, Wednesday's tornado packing winds with speeds up to 200 mph was a severe one, classified as an F-3 on the Fujita scale used by meteorologists. The last tornado of that magnitude to hit Lebanon County touched down in the Bethel and Jackson areas on June 19, 1970, according to National Weather Service meteorologist David Ondrejik. The twister killed a 13-year-old Myerstown boy, who was struck on the head by debris, and injured five others, in addition to causing property damage in excess of $1 million. On July 18, 1992, an F-2 tornado, packing winds between 113 and 157 mph, briefly touched down about 6:30 p.m. in North Londonderry Township and skipped through the county, also touching down in North Lebanon and Jackson townships, according to a Lebanon Daily News article.

No one was injured, and the twister caused only minor damage, estimated at $250,000. In 2002, a category F-1 tornado with winds between Officials work in face of daunting task 1. PEMA Director David Sanko addresses the media Wednesday evening in Campbelltown. Watching (from left) are county EMA Director Dan Kauffman, county administrator Jamie Wolgemuth and county Commissioner Larry Stohler. 2.

Roof trusses, blown several hundred yards, block the crest of Lawn Road 1 near Eagle Drive Estates. 3. Firefighters from Annville inspect the Eagle Drive area, just west of Country Squire, about 90 minutes after the storm. John Latimer Lebanon Daily News Jurell and his crew began their work by doing a quick walk-through of Country Squire Estates. "I decided to get set up at Behrens (Drive) and Carriage (Road), where I could get away from everybody, because that's how I operate the he said.

"I pretty much locked myself in the truck and just started going at it. We tracked every house and everyone who told me a possible concern. We went through that development real quickly the first time. I was real proud of my crew." When Kauffman and Jurell met up at the disaster scene, it was decided the EMA would take over operational One minor hitch: Communication lagged between NWS and 73 and 112 mph touched down in East Hanover and North Annville townships on. April 30.

It was one of seven storms that struck Pennsylvania in a two-day period. An F-3 tornado blew through the Bethel and Jackson areas on June 19, 1970. A 13-year-old Myer- it stown boy, struck on the head by debris, was killed. Five other people were injured. No one was injured, but it caused $850,000 in damage." The hardest hit area East Hanover Township, where 14 homes were damaged or destroyed.

That same year, on June 28, winds reaching speeds of 100 mph hit Fredericksburg, causing $2 million in damage. However, after ing the damage, Ondrejik concluded that the storm' was not a tornado. -John Latimer About 6 p.m., as another line of storms descended, offi-, cials decided to evacuate, Country Squire Soon, residents began arriving by car and school bus at the Red Cross center, where dozens of volunteers registered them and offered meals prepared by the Campbelltown Fire Auxiliary. A total of 180 residents were registered. About 50 stayed overnight, while others stayed with friends and relatives.

Wolgemuth, who was preparing for Sanko to arrive, turned his attention to the tornado victims. "My biggest challenge was. making sure the residents knew what was happening, why it was happening, and just being extremely sensitive to them, because this was a life-changing event for them," he said. A decision was made to get any residents whose homes were structurally sound back home as quickly as possible, Wolgemuth said. A group of county building inspectors was called in, and they began inspecting the homes about 10 p.m.

Wednesday and continued into the wee hours of the morning. Jurell, Wolgemuth and Kauffman say they caught an hour or two of sleep, before they were back at work Thursday to lead the recovery, which is ongoing. Kauffman, 50, was a 26- year veteran of the Lebanon Police Department before he resigned to take the position of county EMA director Sept. 22. Preparedness, he said, is the key to handling any emergency effectively.

"Anytime you have a disaster, it is going to be (chaos)," he said. "The only questions are, how quickly do you recover from it, and how quickly do you respond: And that is where the training and planning comes in." In the coming weeks, he said, the principal players in this emergency will sit down to discuss what went well and what didn't in preparation for other disasters. In ironic timing, the county emergency responders have a mass-casualty training scheduled for 1-August "It ought to be a piece of cake," Wolgemuth said on Friday, flashing one of his first smiles in days. Members of the county's Haz- "And about the same time they tor Dave Sanko, both of whom are The warning system is costly, ardous Materials team were sur- called, we finally got notified, and correcting the problem. and Kauffman admitted he had prised when they first heard the I said, 'Put it across our pager and One way that area residents could not given serious consideration to warning on the television at their radio No sooner had we have better protection in future purchasing it before Wednesday's station on Oak Street, he said.

dropped the announcement than storms is if the county invests in a tornado. "That alert came over the TV set, we had our first 911 call in here weather warning system that would "It just didn't seem like a prioriand they called over to the Com saying, 'My neighbor's house just include installation of monitors in ty to me until this incident," he Center (the EMA communication's disappeared." places like schools and day-care said. "Now I'm starting to reassess center, located in the basement of Kauffman has talked with an centers, Kauffman said. The system that and starting to wonder if that the municipal building) and said, official at the National Weather can also be triggered locally to warn shouldn't be a goal. The ques'Hey, what's going on here? Do you Service and Pennsylvania Emer- of other disasters, like chemical tion is, where do we get the money know about this?" Kauffman said.

gency Management Agency Direc- spills, for example. to put all of these monitors out?" (From page 1A) Yesterday, Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency Director David Sanko lavished praise on the workers and volunteers. "It is remarkable," he said. "I got there early Wednesday evening, and they had already begun damage assessment and were about the business of making sure that people were getting out of the community and properly evacuated. Public safety was first and foremost." Kauffman began preparing for an emergency as soon as he learned of the tornado warning, issued by the National Weather Service at 2:56 p.m.

One of the first things he did was summon Wolgemuth from his secondfloor office in Lebanon's municipal building to the EMA communications center on the bottom floor. Concerned about the several hundred other employees in the building, one of Wolgemuth's first actions was ordering them to take shelter on the ground floor, where they remained for about 20 minutes. Assuming his role as public-information officer, Wolgemuth said he immediately began recording what actions EMA was taking. "My first reaction was I went directly down to EMA and listened to what was going on," he recalled. "I took notes of what was already in place and what they were arranging, such as radio communications, Red Cross, transportation.

And I took notes on the times things were Meanwhile, Kauffman and hazardous-materials crew chief Matt Clements headed west to check out the damage and injuries. It did not take long for them to see the gravity of the situation. "Coming out here, it was quite obvious that we had a serious incident," said Kauffman, who lives in nearby South Annville. "Poles were down, trees were down, we had difficulty getting here. The first property we saw down on Route 322 had collapsed in the back.

"At that point I said, 'Let's go. We are activating the EOC. I want Red Cross out here. I want to set up a mass care shelter. Let's get hold of By JOHN LATIMER Staff Writer One of the few glitches affecting the emergency response to Wednesday's storm was a lag in the time the National Weather Service issued the tornado warning at 2:56 p.m.

and the time the county Emergency Management Agency was notified several minutes later, according to county EMA Director Dan Kauffman. ties, he said, I've got two truckloads of bottled water and 20 porta-potties here." Also helping to organize things for South Londonderry were its EMA coordinator Mark Miller and assistant manager Scott Galbraith. Township manager Rose Mary Kays cut her vacation short and arrived Thursday. command, with Clements working closely with Jurell. About 5 p.m., Kauffman went to the fire station, where the EOC had been set up.

There, a triage unit was operating in a garage under the direction of University Hospital EMS manager Lee Groff. Sixteen people were treated for injuries before being transported to area hospitals. To the rear of the building, Red Cross workers, under the guidance of Brian Hartman and Frank Bergman, were assisting the victims as they began to arrive. Helping to coordinate the setup was EMA administrative assistant Dan Schaeffer. "I have all the respect in the world for that man," Kauffman said.

"He's been involved in mass disasters all over the country. Before I even got here and had to ask about water, and porta-pot- Keeping tabs on the whole operation was Wolgemuth, who had the responsibility of keeping the victims, officials and media informed. The 33-year-old from Schaefferstown has been the county's chief administrator for seven years. 1 PEMA. I want some people down We just started rocking." In Campbelltown, Jurell was also setting out to inspect the damage, unaware of how serious it was.

The 39- year-old has been running with the fire company since he was a teenager. "When I went out the door my son said, 'Can I go and I said, 'No, it's just a wire down or something," he said. "As soon I turned onto (Route) 117 and got to just about Kreider Lane, I knew we had some serious problems. I immediately went to third alarm and basically declared an emergency." 2 3 As more and more media began arriving, Wolgemuth, who had not been to the disaster scene, got a sense of how big the crisis was. "I was here for a couple of hours, and at one point I turned around and saw about 10 satellite trucks lined up, and that's when I realized, this is big!" he said.

After speaking with Kauffman, Wolgemuth and Commissioner Larry Stohler declared a county emergency at 5:37 p.m. That allowed them to make decisions involving spending money for services without the financial constraints of the bid system, which is normally required for county purchases. A short time later, Commissioner Jo Ellen Litz arrived. Commissioner Bill Carpenter is on vacation, but he was kept apprised, Wolgemuth said..