Harrowing tales of close encounters with Ringgold County tornadoes

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There are many stories by Ringgold County residents about their experiences during the storm.
For one family there was no rain, no hail, just strong winds and a tornado grazing the south east edge of Mount Ayr.

Craig and Suz Winemiller received a call from a friend who is a storm spotter, letting them know it looked like a tornado was coming their way.
Suz was still finishing dinner when her husband came in from outside.
“Suz, get to the basement, NOW,” Suz recalled being told, “hold on to the plumbing, and wrap your arms around it.”
This wasn’t the first tornado experience for Craig. He had witnessed a tornado in 1984 when he was a little boy when he resided where Tom Sackett lives today.
“When we were in the basement, we immediately started praying,” said Suz, “it seriously felt like it was only 30 seconds.”
When the Winemillers emerged from shelter, they immediately noticed both cattle sheds were gone.
“Suz, they’re gone,” Craig said.
“It’s overwhelming,” stated Suz, “That’s our livelihood, that’s what we do.”
They were thankful they only lost 7 head of cattle out of 350, although several more were injured, and a half dozen that were sent to get extra medical care.
While it took a couple hours to round up all the cattle that got out, they were able to find them easily.
“They went to this one pond, it’s where we always find them,” said Suz, “It’s like they were waiting for us to come and get them.”
“It was a process, but we did it,” Suz remarked, “The amount of people that showed up to help…that was so humbling.”
Craig only made one call, but people showed up to help regardless.
“We love to give,” said Suz, “so to be on the receiving end, that was humbling.”

That same system had traveled, through Poe Hollow Park, and on towards John and Debbie Larsen’s homestead.
“We are OK,” Debbie Larsen stated in response to friends checking in, “House and property a disaster…still processing.”
After staying the night with their son Dustin in Mount Ayr, they returned in the morning to survey the damage and begin clean up of their house, which was a total loss.
Lori Mercer watched the tornado travel northeast of their house, while their son Tony noted he didn’t see anything at their house south of Tingley, reporting everything went east.

In Tingley Jerry and JoAnn Clark lost their home.
“Our double wide mobile home is now split in two, and it moved three feet to the east,” said Clark, “our new garage was only held together by the spray foam insulation.”
Their work shed was upside down, their travel trailer ended up in a tree and their new RV was picked up and came to rest on its side.
“I heard a terrible noise, the power was out, and I was stuck in my chair,” said Kevin Kiburz, “I probably would have been with the Lord if we had been hit.”
“We didn’t have power for two days, it was back on Sunday after we got home from church,” said Kiburz.
While he and his wife Anna Catherine did not have tornado damage at their house, they spent the weekend helping his cousin, Judy Kiburz, clean up damage at her home.
The tornado demolished the garage, and took off the back part of the roof, blew out all the windows, and sent insulation everywhere.
“The inside of the house looks like a bomb went off,” said Kevin.
Judy sheltered in the bathroom during the storm, and was not injured.
“There were volunteers that came from all over,” Kevin said, “they brought large equipment to help clean up and get trees cut down.”
At the Rex Walters farm just south of Beconsfield, Walter’s daughter Carol Ann Weeda said her parents were able to get into their basement before the tornado struck their farm. She said their weather alert alarm went off as they were exiting the basement after the storm had passed.
A barn, trailer, outbuildings and trees all suffered destruction or damage.
She reminisced about the barn that was destroyed.
“A lot of memories with that building. We put a lot of hogs through it.,” said Weeda.

Kim Scharfenkamp was looking to the west from the south door of her house along 169 Hwy, five miles south of Mount Ayr, around 7:20 p.m. on Friday, April 26 when she captured photos of a tornado near Hwy. 169.
“I noticed a second multiple funnel to my south with debris swirling,” Scharfenkamp stated, “I assume the debris came from the farm directly south of us across the bridge on 169. This farm is missing a building and roof is partially gone.”
She went to the basement at that time. When she came out afterwards, she saw the tornado to the northeast of them.
Scharfenkamp captured pictures of the debris directly to her south after seeing the funnels.
Doris Walters told Scharfenkamp the tornado on the west crossed the Hwy just south of her. Doris is less than a mile to the north of Scharfenkamp.
Ladies affiliated with the Redding church said the tornado divided into three separate ones.
Scharfenkamp has posted photos on her facebook page in the order she saw them.
She also reached out to one of the storm chasers Monday to ask about the multi vortexes.
According to Hunter Hurley, storm spotters believe the first born tornado was a multi-vortex and transitioned into a cone before a meso-hand off occurred and spawned another multiple vortex tornado.
“At one point we believe to of had 3-5 vorticites on the ground simultaneously,” Hurley stated in a message to Scharfenkamp.
Melvin Gray, a 90-something resident who lives in his house just south of Mount Ayr, sat on his porch as silos and buildings across the road were destroyed or damaged.
“I figured I would just sit here. I’ve lived this long and if the good Lord wanted me now he could have me.” said Gray.
Gray and his house survived intact.