March tornado hits Seminole & Miller County Farms

by Jennifer Whittaker, Editor

Pictured R-L, Mark Hanna talks to Seminole County Extension Coordinator Rome Ethredge about the damage he suffered on his Seminole County farm during the March 22 tornado including overturned irrigation systems.

Mark Hanna of Seminole County and Russell Smith of neighboring Miller County did not anticipate that their farms would be struck by a tornado when they awoke on March 22.

The end of March usually finds both men planting corn. However, this year, their spring planting was replaced with the monumental task of cleaning up the storm debris scattered across their farms by the March 22 tornado. Frequent rain in the days following the storm prolonged their return to their fields.

The severity of the tornado that swept across northwest Seminole County into southwest Miller County ranged in severity from an F2 to F3 according to National Weather Service (NWS) reports. Wind speeds in an F2 tornado range from 113 to 157 mph. Damage may include roofs torn off framed houses, demolished mobile homes, and large trees uprooted or snapped. Wind speeds in an F3 tornado range from 158 to 206 mph. Damage from an F3 tornado is rated as severe and may result in roofs and some walls torn off well-constructed houses, overturned trains, trees uprooted and heavy cars lifted from the ground.

The tornado struck the part of Hanna’s Seminole County farm located on Hwy. 84, west of Donalsonville. The storm hit an equipment shed housing peanut and cotton pickers and a grain combine. The winds ripped off sections of the shed’s tin roof and pulled up the steel beams anchored in the ground with cement, leaving them tilted, like dominoes, facing north. Fortunately, Hanna’s equipment appeared to have only suffered minor dents.

“I was planting corn at another farm site when the storm struck down here. We were going to be planting corn in this field the next day,” Hanna said.

Nine days after the storm, Hanna surveyed his damage once more.

“Being a farmer, I’m fascinated by the weather. I’ve always wanted to see a tornado, but now I’ve looked out here, ” Hanna said, ending his sentence abruptly.

A grain bin storing corn that once stood beside the shed was completely destroyed. The tornado lifted it off its foundation and blew it about a quarter of a mile across a dirt road to the edge of a field. Bunker bins storing wet grain that sat beside the upright bin were also damaged. Hanna estimates he lost about 60,000 bushels of grain. A feed wagon parked at the site had still not been located. A deciduous live oak standing near the bins was left bare, and though the tree remained standing, the smaller top branches were broken off, while larger branches near the trunk were split open.
Hanna’s three irrigation systems, standing in the field across the road from the bins and equipment shed, were all overturned. He says two are salvageable in varying degrees, but one is unrepairable. Hanna also lost cattle to the storm. To evaluate his losses, his insurance adjuster faxed him 13 pages to access.

“We’ve been fortunate that neighbors have loaned us the equipment we needed to cleanup that we didn’t have,” Hanna said.

After striking Hanna’s farm, the tornado swirled northeast over the Seminole County line into Miller County where it hit the farm, just off Hwy. 91, Russell Smith tends with his son Ricky and grandsons Dusty and Nicholas. Here, the tornado unleashed its fury: leveling two equipment sheds; laying five irrigation systems on the ground; overturning two semi-trucks and their attached trailers used to haul crops; totaling a pickup; mangling numerous other pieces of farm equipment and leaving only one of seven tractors useable without needing repair.

Adding insult to injury, the storm also damaged both Russell and Ricky’s brick houses.

An equipment shed on Mark Hanna’s farm, west of Donalsonville, was hit by a March 22 tornado. The storm uprooted the cement-anchored steel beams of the shed and left them tilted, like dominoes, facing north. Fortunately, Hanna’s equipment appeared to have only suffered minor dents.

Russell’s house was so severely damaged that it had to be leveled. Fortunately, Russell and his wife, Lillian, were in Dothan, Ala., for a doctor’s appointment when the tornado hit.

“I left home that morning and didn’t realize I would never see it again,” Russell said. “I think the good Lord was protecting us. He knew where we all were when the storm came through, and everyone in my family lived.”

Across the pasture, at Ricky’s house, the tornado ripped off the rear side of the roof that faces west. The storm also damaged the home of Russell’s daughter located on the south side of the farm.

“I’ve seen destruction before, but I’ve never seen any this bad,” Russell said. “It’s just about wiped us out, but we’ve been here since 1948, and I plan to rebuild my home.”

Although their fences were blown down, amazingly, the storm left the Smith’s cattle corral standing. However, they lost numerous head of cattle and had to put down others due to critical wounds. The storm also uprooted a number of pecan trees around the farm.

“On this 400 acre farm I might have two or three shade trees left,” Russell said.

“This used to be one of the shadiest places in the county. You wouldn’t recognize it if you had seen it before,” Rome Ethredge, Seminole County Extension coordinator, commented.

Russell said his family has been overwhelmed by offers of help from neighbors. He and his wife had at least 25 people offer them a place to stay. Neighbors from three adjoining counties have pitched in to help the Smiths with cleanup.

“They’re the best people in the world. That’s the reason I don’t want to move. When you’ve got neighbors like that you can’t move off and leave them.”

Despite the help, cleanup has not been easy.

“We’ve been staying out here until nine or ten at night,” Russell said.

Nine days after the March 22 tornado, piles of debris still smoldered as the Russell Smith family worked feverishly to clean their Miller Co. farm. So much rain fell during the storm and the following week that an impromptu pond formed in the pasture, just west of where Smith’s house once stood.

Nine days past the storm, debris piles were still smoldering as Dusty and Nicholas worked feverishly to straighten overturned equipment. So much rain fell March 22 and the following week that an impromptu pond formed in the pasture on the west side of Smith’s house.

Last year the Smiths - who farm in Seminole, Miller and Decatur counties - were named the Seminole Farm Family of the Year by the Donalsonville/Seminole County Chamber of Commerce and Seminole County Farm Bureau.

“Maybe we’ll make a crop this year. We’re going to give it a try.”

“We’re used to seeing hurricane damage and rain affect our crop harvest in the fall, but not storms in the spring affecting planting,” said Ethredge. “Farmers are resilient, and hopefully they’ll be planting soon.”

Ten people in Miller and eight people in Seminole County were injured as a result of the storm according to Emergency Management Agency (EMA) reports. Mary Burrington, 34, of Donalsonville died from generalized trauma received during the storm.

As of March 26, the Miller County EMA found about 83 homes in Miller County unlivable, meaning they were destroyed or severely damaged. Almost 150 homes in the County suffered some form of damage. In Seminole County, the damage assessment stood at 14 homes that were demolished or severely damaged and 24 homes damaged, the Seminole County EMA reported.