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2 Years Later

Impacts of tornado still felt in county

Times Observer file photo Carter Lumber of Starbrick after an April 2019 EF-2 tornado touched down in Starbrick

It’s been two years, but the impacts of a tornado can still be seen and are still being felt in Warren County.

On April 15, 2019, an EF-2 tornado with winds of 120 to 130 miles per hour cut a line of destruction through the county.

Damages were seen from Davey Hill Road in Deerfield Township, through Althom, into Starbrick — ground zero — mostly skimming over North Warren, and finally crossing Conewango Creek and striking the northernmost part of the City of Warren at a reduced ferocity — winds at 80 to 90 miles per hour.

Part of a metal sign from Carter Lumber in Starbrick was found 3 miles away in North Warren. Insulation littered the path of the tornado from Starbrick to more than 10 miles away in Scandia.

Two years later, corrugated metal ripped from buildings in Starbrick can be seen on the hillside above the county garage on Route 6.

Times Observer file photo Vehicles stored in a structure at Whitmire Block were tossed by an April 2019 EF-2 tornado.

Homes all along the path of the tornado have been repaired.

The two businesses at the point where the tornado did the most damage are open, but their stories are different.

“We ended up having to replace or repair every building on the property,” Carter Lumber Manager Jeff Thomas said. “We put in a brand new steel storage shed on the south end of the lot. That building was completely destroyed.”

That building is an upgrade with “way more storage than we had before,” he said.

“The building on the north end that used to be the old plumbing store was completely wiped out,” he said. The new 65-by-150 foot building is housing special orders and storage for now, but “we plan to make that a brand new store and showroom.”

Photo submitted to Times Observer A Ground Zero sign was put up at Whitmire Block in Starbrick in the aftermath of an April 2019 EF-2 tornado.

“We had to re-roof everything,” he said. “All the lumber overhangs were peeled right off.”

“It was quite extensive,” Thomas said. “We had to do a lot of work, but it was well worth it.”

The business remained closed through the fall of that year. “We relied on a lot of our other locations,” he said. “We were still able to provide for and keep our core customer base happy.”

“I think we officially opened in the last part of September,” Thomas said.

COVID didn’t help, but business is booming. “Last year and this year it’s gangbusters, it’s going crazy,” he said. “We have a very dedicated customer base that really helped us out.”

Across Preston Road, Whitmire Block has a new Ground Zero sign in remembrance of the tornado — and the political battles that followed with demolition and rebuilding. “I’ve had more comments on that sign than anything I’ve ever done in my life,” Owner Mike Whitmire said.

The business is open, but it did not fully recover.

“I probably will never be back to full operation,” Whitmire said. “I lost $281,000 worth of building and product that day. I have 10,000 square feet less of building and dry space.”

He said battles over building codes and permits — for demolition and construction — and taxes led to court dates and other problems that could have been avoided. “That was the biggest tragedy,” he said.

“We got through it,” he said. “I’m still operating down there.”

Whitmire was uninsured and he does not regret the family’s decision not to have insurance. Since it opened in 1971, the business would have paid more in premiums than the coverage would have provided, he said.

Shortly after the storm, Whitmire was asked if he was thinking about closing his doors.

“I’m the farthest from closing my doors that I’ve ever been … because they’re all gone,” he said. “We’re surviving. We’re getting by. I have no choice. I have to get by.”

The traffic signal at Preston and Route 6 was brought down in the storm.

It stayed down for almost two years, finally being replaced in March.

“There was discussion” about not having it put back up, according to Township Secretary Jennifer Riggin. That decision was not up to the township supervisors, but their action was required to see if the signal could stay down.

“Once we got through the insurance stuff, we discussed it… ‘it’s been down for so long, nobody’s complained,'” she said.

The supervisors approved a motion to request a new traffic study in late 2019. PennDOT approved that in January 2020, but didn’t set a date.

Then COVID hit and everything was pushed back.

The study was finally completed in October.

“The study said it was warranted,” Riggin said.

The township put up a new signal — to the same specs as the old one. That work was covered under the township’s insurance.

“The good part of it is, we put it back up as it was,” she said.

There is a betterment project on the way that includes that stretch of Route 6 and PennDOT will be upgrading the signals to something similar to what recently went up on Route 62 in North Warren.

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