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Lois Jarvis, 4625 Tokay Blvd.
On Wednesday night June 23 at 8:35 a tornado passed pretty close to our house at 4625 Tokay. A couple of small branches were blown down from some of our trees on Tokay. Just across Tokay and about six houses east of here on our side of Tokay is as close as any real damage came to our property. Of course we heard the storm and saw the debris fly by!
I took a 1 1/2-hour walk around the neighborhood on Thursday and this is what I saw. The path of the tornado locally was in the center of the 500 block of streets from Segoe to Midvale. It was not very a regular path after that. I walked the 500 block of Orchard, Charles, Hillside and Togsted Glenn as well as past Midvale Plaza to Owen and to Westmoreland Park and back to my house.
The worst tree damage was on Chatham Terrace a street the runs between Tokay and Owen. The downed trees were so thick that paths were cut in them. I felt like I was walking through paths of shoveled snow. The big oak trees in the "ditch" at Westmoreland Park are broken off at the tops and there is quite a mess in the ditch. There was no damage on the other side of the park. No one was working on cleaning it up Thursday as crews are more concerned with making roads passable and getting power restored.
The tornado went up Anthony Lane and into the Nakoma neighborhood but I didn't walk that far. Nor did I head toward Segoe. Although everyone said a garage was totaled down there. We drove down Segoe Friday and saw the damaged garage and where the tornado tore up the bigger triangle park as it crossed Segoe Road.
On Charles at the north end of the block there was a house that had a very overgrown backyard. It will soon have a totally new look. All the pines were uprooted and or snapped by the wind.
In the middle of the block a tall pine in the front of the house was uprooted and laid downed onto the carport. The neighboring garage is now several inches back from its foundation. There was also damage to the back of that house. The next neighbor had a line of white pines snapped off at about 12 feet up in the air. The house across the street has a very sunny attic now!!!!
At Tokay and Togsted Glen a falling tree took out a utility pole.
The Midvale Community Lutheran Church has only 1 1/2 pine trees where it used to have 3.
Midvale Plaza is being checked for structural damage because the air conditioner units on the roof were moved. Some of the panels on the front of the mall were blown off. The library was closed because of loss of power.
Bergman's was open for emergency prescriptions only.
Although I am thankful there was no loss of human life, I feel so sad at the loss of the beautiful trees that are so much a part of this neighborhood. I saw a tree full of cherries being cut up because it had been uprooted. I saw a worker with a buzz saw taking out one of the few remaining crabapple trees on Midvale Blvd. Seeing them in full bloom around Mother’s day always gave me so much pleasure. I noticed little clumps of leaves all over the ground and saw oak, maple, ash, locust, ginkgo, tulip, walnut and many kinds of pine. It was a very sad walk for me. At the rate things are going it will all be cleaned up before our daughter Lydia gets home on July 2 from two weeks at camp. All she will notice are less shady spots on the sidewalk.
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