Tornado damage from south of Gothenburg

Darren Addy and I went chasing (or, more accurately, busting) this past Saturday, and on the way we stopped by in Gothenburg to snap a few photos of the damage from the tornado that struck south of town on April 20th. The tornado ended up being rated an EF-2. You can see the NWS's page about it here.

The scene was really something -- it's amazing how far tornadoes can spread debris. There were front end loaders all over the place picking up sheet metal and lumber and the like out of the fields hundreds of yards from where the debris originated from. The cleanup effort was huge, with at least 30 people and 5 pieces of heavy construction equipment helping out.

Below are the photos that I shot. Click to enlarge.






A snapped tree atop a home's roof south of Gothenburg.






All the windows in this SUV were blown out.






Damaged house.










Lumber from a damaged house embedded in the window of a pickup truck. The truck's windows were shattered.






Damaged tractor trailor.






Damaged tractor trailor.






Damaged, mud-caked truck, at the edge of a field, with a debris field in the background.







Tire swing (for fun framing), with damaged house in the background. Basically, a hole is blown in the kitchen area.






Another through the tire.







This is a tractor trailer alongside I-80 near some snapped trees in the path of the tornado. I assume the driver made it out okay, since I didn't read any news stories about truck driver injuries. The cab was really smashed up, though.







While it's unfortunate that homes were damaged and people were injured, Gothenburg really, in my opinion, dodged a bullet on this one -- on a freak, unexpected supercell, no less.