“Roof is gone. Windows are all out; total mess.”
Herb McCamish’s home has significant damage. The roof is almost gone.
McCamish lived in Baker his entire life and in this house since 1983.
“The bedroom doors were blown right off the hinges,” McCamish said. “This is total disaster.”
“It’s unbelievable,” McCamish said.”I have never seen anything like it in my life.”
The Tornado left behind nothing but destruction.
“You see jackets in the air,” said Robert Pfund, news director at KFLN in Baker, MT. “You see pieces of tin, insulation and reports of people on the west side of town people finding family heirlooms.”
“The metal shed blew out of the backyard. The four-wheeler just went in the water and flipped over,” said Kyle Sander, who traveled from Grand Rapids, SD to help his family, who were out of town clean up. “And they got a camper style trailer next to the shed that’s upside down too. ”
“I never would’ve thought it had been this bad,” said Natasha Alderman.
Alderman recorded a video of the tornado before it touched ground.
“There was debris flying through the sky around our house.”
The first tornado landed just before 7:00 in the evening on Saturday. Three homes were completely destroyed and an estimated 30 homes have significant damage. Residents are saying it’s a miracle no one was fatally injured.
“You can replace things, but you can’t replace people, said Pfund. “I’m very lucky we didn’t have anything worse happen.”
Despite the chaos, spirits remain high.
“Everybody is banding together and helping,” Alderman said. “You can look on Facebook and there are multiple people willing to donate items and to come and help and do whatever they can.”
Reynolds supermarket has donated food and the American Red Cross has opened a shelter for the families that were displaced.
The tornado knocked the power out on the east side of town .
Crews worked all day to restore it.
Photo: KX NEWS
KX News By Ray Strickland
