Fayette County, WV (WOAY) – “It’s uh… Real humbling… When you lose everything you have got. Then you realize you have got more in life than you realize”. Tommy Coleman was reflecting on the EF2 tornado struck Hico 2 years ago, catching many residents by surprise.
One resident says “Our phones sounded off and said get to the basement”. Now that we are two years after the fact, we have a broader sense of exactly what unfolded. It touched down just to the west of bluebird lane and immediately started inducing damage to trees and structures as it continued lifting to the east northeast. It paralleled Mallard Road or moving right on over it before it crossed highway 60 and continued moving in that east-northeast direction and then ended up lifting just east of Bracken Creek Road.
At the time, our reporters on the ground could only describe the destruction they saw. Former Chief Meteorologist Chad Merrill said, “We have mangled debris here in the northeastern parts of Fayette County on Tuesday, April 2nd. Between 4:30 and 5 p.m. a possible tornado moved across route 60, you can see lots of mangled wires, downed trees and even lots of damage to the homes in this particular area.”
The tornado lasted only 5 minutes, but the recovery lasted much longer. Some of the families who lost their homes just moved back into them last year, while the homes that were rebuilt look brand new. If you look closely around the area, you can see the physical and emotional scar that just 5 minutes of 130-mile-per-hour winds can leave behind two years later.
Tommy Coleman, the Chief of Nuttall Fire Department said, “I used to love to sit out and listen to it storm, I don’t wanna listen to no more storms.”
Tommy Coleman has helped people through emergencies for many years, but when this tornado hit, it showed him the kind of power he had never seen before. The kind of power that caused a complete loss at his own home.
He said, “The tornado hit on a Tuesday. I tore my house out on Saturday, some of the local fire departments came out and helped out. I was on the flood of 2016, I was out for days helping families and seen the power that water had. I never really realized the power that wind would have.”
The EF2 tornado destroyed several homes and changed lives in 5 minutes, but for some people, the thought of what could have happened is still hard to shake two years later. Tommy said, “If the first cell hadn’t had come through and we wouldn’t have lost our power, me and my wife would’ve probably both been home when this thing hit us.”
Tornadoes may be rare in West Virginia. 20 of them in 2024 and none just the following year, but for Tommy and his family, every tornado warning now means something very different.
He said “I used to laugh about them and I told people tornadoes just don’t hit here. I’ve lived right in this area, right in that spot for 48 years and I was always told tornadoes ain’t gonna hit in these mountains. Now when they go off, PTSD’s a real thing.” Like most homes in the area, Tommy’s has been rebuilt along with the other families as well. Now, while their lives are not going to be the exact same as they were before the tornado. They can now start to get back to normal.
Check out the full video below!
