Tornado aftermath. My sister survived.
My sister's house was swept away. Cincinnati, Ohio, 1999.
It was a stormy day in Ohio.
My sister Jill, her hubby Steve, and their 5 boys were home. It was around 5 AM when they heard the sirens warning of a tornado. They scurried to the basement, then the phone rang upstairs. Steve ran up to answer it. It was dead. Then he noticed the dog was still upstairs.
He called the dog, and they both ran to the basement. Then it hit. The loud freight train sound was overwhelming. Loud crashing as the house was utterly destroyed.
Then it was over. They were safe.
They were living in the Montgomery Woods subdivision, which was pretty much wiped out.
Trees that were not uprooted stood stripped of bark and branches, their white trunks twisted like a rung washcloth.
Two drivers died when high winds lifted their vehicles from the highway.
Donald E. Lewis, 38, of Blanchester, was killed at 5:15 a.m. Friday while driving westbound on I-275 near Montgomery Road, said the Ohio State Patrol. Winds tossed his car into a ditch.
At 5:30 a.m., Blue Ash police said, high winds also lifted the sedan driven by Charles S. Smith, 40, of Loveland, off I-71 north of Pfeiffer Road and slammed it into a noise…
