Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Tornado Sounded Like "3 Jets Flying Over"

Stacy Craig found out what it was like to be in a movie and didn't like it one bit.

Of course, that could be because of the movie and the circumstances. While Craig wasn't actually in a Hollywood production, she felt as if she were in the movie "Twister," when tornadoes blew through Nevada County on March 1.

Craig, along with her parents, literally outran the tornado which destroyed her house on Washington Road.

Shortly before the storm hit, Craig was down the road at her parent's house. She had returned home to get a pair of shoes. "I had no idea anything was coming," she said.

"I got the shoes and went to my folk's house. My dad went outside, saying he heard something."

Craig said what she heard was unlike a train, but more resembled three jet engines flying at tree top level.

"It was so loud," she said. "I've never heard anything like it before.

"We got in the car and headed down the road. We were going 74 miles an hour when I felt the wind and floored it."

Craig and her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Coy Little, raced down Washington Road seeking safety. They found it by the time they had reached Baker's Best Stop on Highway 67.

However, instead of stopping, they turned around and returned home.

While there was some damage at the Little home, Craig had no home left. The tornado took the house from its foundation, leaving a slab and a few odds and ends laying around.

Craig said she had some dishes belonging to her late grandfather in a cedar chest with a quilt on top of it. The chest was gone, but the dishes were left stacked and unharmed. The quilt was also nearby.

Still, though her home and possessions are gone, Craig counts herself lucky. Normally, she said, when she goes home she dawdles around. Additionally, her mother tried to call while she was there before the storm hit, but the phone never rang.

The silent phone may have been what saved her life, as she left shortly before her home departed in the twister.

"It's unreal to me still," Craig said. "I never want to go through it again. But, we're keeping a positive attitude about things."

She and her husband, Tim, plan to rebuild their home on the original site of the one that was blown away.

Tim, she said, was working at Hudson's in Hope when the storm hit. "He didn't believe it when I called and told him."

However, the reality of the situation hit home when he saw his house was gone.

"He fell apart at first," she said, "but is doing all right now. He's back at work."

The site looks as if a giant child was playing house and picked up part of its toys when it was through. A satellite dish remains in the driveway, after being ripped from its foundation. Other odds and ends, including furniture parts, litter where the Craig home once stood.

Along with most of their possessions, the Craigs lost a truck, while Coy Little had a car destroyed in the storm.

Craig said some of their cancelled checks were found in Little Rock and mailed back to them. In addition, part of their deed was found in Donaldson, with other items mailed back from Benton and Malvern.

However, the house has not been found as of yet, nor has any of the furniture or home interior she had it decorated with.

Interestingly, her wedding license was located at Willow Oaks, as was her wedding dress. She said the dress had a tear and was dirty, but otherwise in good condition.

Still, Craig can joke about what happened to her as she works to maintain a positive attitude about things. "We're OK," she said. "My folks took it worse than I did. They were really upset about it (the house being blown away).

"Everything's got to get better," she continued. "The worst is over with. We loved it there, and will build a storm shelter this time."

Craig offered thanks to those who came out after the tornado and helped with what little cleaning up had to be done. She said many others have called with sympathy and to make sure they're all right.

"The help we've gotten is unreal," Craig said. "People from the city and county have been wonderful. We had people we didn't know helping us."

A travel trailer at her parents' home was overturned, with several windows being blown out as well. Their carport was also destroyed.

She said a neighbor behind her had his boat motor ripped from the boat, with it winding up in the bedroom of one of her aunts.

Laughing, Craig said had she known the tornado was coming, she wouldn't have cleaned house and scrubbed the floors earlier in the day.

"We lost a lot," she said, "but we're not dwelling on it. We've gained a new insight and are thankful to have our lives."

The Craig's were insured, which will make it a little easier for them to rebuild.

"We can replace the material things," she said, "but it's stressful trying to get a home built."

In the aftermath of the tornado, Craig said she looks at things differently. Before the storm, she was a packrat, keeping everything. She also had her home decorated with home interior items.

Now, though, she plans on keeping fewer material things, focusing instead on her husband and family.

"It's getting easier to talk about," she said of the tornado and losing her home.

"It seems like it made us stronger," she said of her marriage. "We're getting everything back on track; building the house and dodging tornadoes. It's a miracle I got out of that one."

Craig said when she and Tim decide to have children, they will have some good stories to tell of the time their house was literally swallowed by a tornado.