Published: February 17, 2009 08:49 am      

Straight-line winds caused damage

Officials: Path of destruction indicates tornadic winds were not to blame

By Carl Keith Greene / Staff Writer

The winds that wreaked havoc in Knox, Whitley and Laurel counties Wednesday were straight-line winds and not tornados, said Brian Schoeffman at the Jackson office of the National Weather Service.

A Friday inspection of the Stinking Creek area of Knox County, the hardest hit portion of the Tri-County, showed the remains of straight-line winds, Schoeffman said.

Tornadic winds would have left trees and other affected items in a particular pattern, while the straight-line shows trees and debris all fell in the same direction, he said.

Wednesday afternoon’s squall line that crossed the commonwealth from north to south and moved from west to east, created wind gusts as high as 59 miles per hour at the airport in London.

At Stinking Creek a trailer was crushed to pieces. The man who lived there had moved out just a week earlier.

A car wash had lost a cement block wall and other trailers were knocked from their foundations.

In the Walker community, a trailer was blown over on its side.

Knox County Emergency Management Director Larry Howard reported that at least 23 homes were damaged and four were destroyed.

Each area where homes were destroyed was documented and its latitude and longitude were recorded for Federal Emergency Management Administration officials who may come in and inspect the area and determine if homeowners will be reimbursed for the damage.

Whitley and Knox counties each declared a state of emergency.

Damage was spread across Knox County in the areas of Artemus, Flat Lick and Swan Pond.

Damage to Whitley County was mostly contained south of Corbin, beginning at about the area of the Corbin Speedway on U.S. 25 south of town.

John Potts, a spokesperson for the speedway said the winds “took some boards out of the grandstand” and the roof off one end. It also knocked over a sign-in shack as well, he said.

North and west Williamsburg and the university area sustained perhaps the worst damage in Whitley County.

There were reports of “seven or eight” houses in the city with trees fallen on top of them.

The University of the Cumberlands sustained damage to some of its buildings with a portion of the Academic Building’s roof torn off.