Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Tornado Touches Down in County

A tornado ripped through Southern Nevada County Sunday afternoon, leaving a path of destruction.

However, there were no injuries in the wake of the twister.

The bulk of the damage occurred in the Cale area, where a tree was blown onto the home of Richard Bradley, several chicken houses were destroyed and some cabins at Barham Lake were heavily damaged.

According to former meteorologist Davis Benton, the tornado hit between 4-5 p.m., as most residents were preparing for church.

Nevada County Judge John Barham said the National Weather Service didn't issue any watches or warnings, so no one expected the severe weather.

The tornado cut a narrow path of destruction, first touching down near Willisville, where some trees were blown down, before lifting and going to the Oak Grove community and then to Cale.

Benton said the storm took a northeasterly path from Cale. Debris from the twister was reported as far away as 10 miles, with pieces of tin from the destroyed chicken houses found in Bluff City.

Curiously enough, the Bradley home had a tree fall on it, but little damage was done to the house. A nearby shed had its roof lifted off, and downed trees ruined a fenced in area where Bradley kept his hunting dogs, which escaped.

Benton called the Shreveport, La. office of the NWS after the tornado struck. They informed him their radar hadn't shown any circular motion in the storm at the time.

Barham said he had just arrived at church when a member of the Laneburg Volunteer Fire Department came to him with his portable radio, informing the judge of the tornado.

Barham returned home to get his car and head to the scene to assess the damage.

"I saw the tree on the Bradley home," he said, "and tried to get through on county road 45, but couldn't."

He then attempted to come up on the other side of Cale, but couldn't because of downed trees.

Barham said the tornado cut a narrow path, leaving amazingly little damage, other than in the area of county road 45.

The judge spoke to representatives of Hudson Foods, who said relatively few of Bill Barham's chickens had been killed.

"We lucked out," Judge Barham said. "It could've been a lot worse." He said there was also very little rainfall associated with the tornado, with only 0.3 inches reported in the Cale area.

Benton said members of area volunteer fire departments, along with area rescue units, pitched in to help clear roads and get trees out of the way.