Twister tears through Colorado town; 1 person killed

Associated Press Photo — Colorado Department of Transportation workers remove debris from a truck that was hit by the roof of a nearby building when a tornado touched down Thursday near Windsor, Colo.

The Associated Press

5/23/2008

WINDSOR, Colo. — A large tornado skipped through several northern Colorado towns on Thursday, destroying dozens of homes, flipping tractor-trailers and freight rail cars, and killing at least one person.

The National Weather Service said the tornado touched down just before noon near Platteville, about 50 miles north of Denver. Over the next hour, it moved northward past several towns along a 35-mile-long track toward Wyoming.

In Windsor, a farming town of 16,000 that was hardest hit, dazed residents retrieved what they could from their homes.

"I didn't want to see this. That's for sure," Alexander Martinez, 41, said while staring at a staircase, balcony and personal belongings from his apartment that ended up in his front yard. The apartment's roof and a front wall had been torn away.

Nine people were hospitalized with various injuries at the Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland, spokesman Alex Stuessie said. In Greeley, four people were treated for minor injuries at North Colorado Medical Center, administrative representative Laurie Hamit said.

Pete Ambrose, a caretaker at the campground outside Greeley, said he hid in a cinderblock restroom when he saw the twister approaching. A frightened camper who tried to outrun the storm in an RV was killed.

"I yelled at him to come with me and he tried to drive off," a despondent Ambrose said after emerging from his shelter.

Chris Robillard, deputy coroner for Weld County, identified the victim as Oscar Michael Manchester, 52, who had been living in a camper in the area for several years. An autopsy was scheduled for Friday.

"My house is gone," Ambrose said. "I lost my dog. I lost my cats. I lost my camper. I lost everything."

Crews removed downed power lines and poles from Windsor's streets Thursday evening and bulldozers cleared debris.

Several minor tornadoes were reported in northern Colorado on Thursday, the National Weather Service said. Meteorologist Jim Kalina said two or three major storm cells affected the area and that the weather service was trying to confirm how many tornados touched down.

Video footage of the large tornado showed a dark gray funnel perhaps a quarter-mile wide accompanied by heavy hail and rain.

Richard Dykstra, 65, was in his Windsor pest control office with six other people when it began to hail and the roof began to slide off the building. "We had about 90 seconds, but we managed to get into the basement," Dykstra said.

He said he ran to a day care center where his grandson was. No children were hurt, and they were herded into a vault at a nearby bank until the storm system cleared.

"It passed right over us like a big, white monster," said Thomas Coupe, 87, of Windsor.

The tornado overturned 15 railroad cars and destroyed a lumber car on the Great Western Railway of Colorado, said Mike Ogburn, managing director of Denver-based Omnitrax Inc., which manages the railroad. Fourteen of the overturned cars were tankers, but they were empty.

All of northeastern Colorado was under a tornado watch through Thursday night, the National Weather Service said.

About 130 people waited at a downtown Red Cross shelter for friends to pick them up or for evacuation orders to expire, but the shelter was moving to nearby fairgrounds because of a lack of power. A second shelter opened at an events center in Loveland.

Gov. Bill Ritter declared a state of emergency for Weld County and toured the area. He said he talked to the Federal Emergency Management Agency about possible assistance.

Area police departments sent officers to patrol affected neighborhoods and deter looters, said Windsor Police Chief John Michaels.