Aroda man: Twister hit

By Jane DeGeorge
Eagle Reporter
Published: June 19, 2008

At about 3:40 p.m. on June 16, Aroda resident Ken Angus was sitting in a rocking chair on his porch when he saw a disturbing sight.

High winds blew by bending a large maple tree in his front yard sideways and forcing rain to fall horizontally, he said.

“It was like a wall of rain,” Angus recalled of the June 16 storm, which ripped through his Elly Road property.

Soon Angus spotted a large storm cloud that was about 100 feet off the ground.

“That’s when I couldn’t get inside soon enough,” he said.

Shortly before what Angus says was a tornado blew by his two-story home, he rushed inside struggling to close the storm doors. He quickly shut himself into a hallway closet and prayed, thinking of his nine-month pregnant daughter, who lives on adjacent property.

“When I was in the closet I could just hear the tornado throwing all the stuff off of my porch,” he said.

After five minutes of listening to the wind, rain and quarter-size hail stones pelting his windows, the Aroda resident emerged from the closet.
It seems the storm’s path barely missed Angus’ 16-year-old home, which suffered little damage although it was left covered in leaves and debris. Thankfully, the “tornado” also avoided his daughter’s home as well, he said.

However, a large blue spruce and a 100-year-old apple tree on Angus’ property were not so lucky. Other trees in the Aroda area were also knocked down by the storm, as were some power lines, he said. 

Apparently, the June 16 storm followed a narrow path as only a total of 10 customers reported power outages, the Aroda resident said he was told by the power company.

The frightening experience brought back memories of when Angus endured Hurricane Camille while he was staying at his grandmother’s home in 1969.
“But that was nothing compared to the funnel cloud and wind that passed by my house with only feet to spare,” Angus said of Monday’s storm.

The June 16 weather event brought hail and high winds to other areas of Virginia, including Greene and Orange counties, where the weather reportedly caused damage to homes and vehicles, according to recent news reports.