Remembering The Tornado Of 2012: Ten Years Later

[TTL News 308]

Below are some photos from around the area after an EF1 tornado ripped through Golden Glow and down through the city of Elmira, up Jerusalem Hill, later passing through the Town of Baldwin. 

Where were you that day? What do you remember?

 

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The tornado's path, according to the National Weather Service:

[Chris 2,162]

I was working at the mall when this happened. I remember looking out the back exterior door, which faces out to Chambers Road. I texted home and told them to lock the animals in, we had a bad storm coming. Then everyone's phones started going nuts with the tornado warning. I looked out the back door again, and texted "F--k the animals, get to the basement." The sky was the ugliest I'd ever seen, and rather than describe it, here's exactly what I saw:

I don't know who the person was that took this photo, but the took it at about the same time I was looking out there. I would have been maybe 20 feet or so to the right of the person who took it. 

Then the power went out, and I turned on the scanner app I had at the time, which was going absolutely bonkers. 

The tornado is said to have "ended" at Jerusalem Hill Road, but I will tell you that if anything it fizzled out a bit and then picked up steam again as it came over the hill into our town, about 1 1/2 miles up the road. I believe that there was later confirmation, and it was called a third or fourth tornado. Unfortunately I lost the clipping. 

If you look at the  pic below though, it's a straight shot from where it reportedly ended and where damage in North Chemung happened.

This thing leveled a path of trees down the western hill, across the road, and out through the woods on the opposite side. 

We were without power for a few days, and I had to go up towards Utica to play a festival. I didn't really feel up to it, but I had to go. And besides, sweat my ass off there or here without AC, right? At our second show, we introduced ourselves and mentioned we were from the Elmira area. You could hear a murmur through the crowd, in recognition of what had happened. 

Driving home that night, I saw lights off ahead in the distance and prayed ours was on as well. When we rounded the curve, the lights were on and I was overjoyed. 

Many of our neighbors were without power another day or two, and every power crew I saw up here I made sure to thank for their help. 

[Kevin 334]

I was in Colorado for a work training. As I was getting off social media to take the test I saw all kinds of posts about a storm coming.  About 20-25 minutes later I finished my test and signed back into social media and saw all kinds of posts about a tornado and damage and then the Ethernet cable was unplugged for my laptop. 

It took about 10 minutes to get packed up and back out to the car where I could try and call my wife. Of course all circuits were busy and it took me a about an hour to get ahold of someone to see how the family was. Luckily they were ok. 

[Hal 341]

My Homeowners Insurance company came through in spades because the windshear that took out a Maple tree as the tornado came over the hill 1/2 mile up the road also ripping out one apple tree in the orchard . They would not pay for the trees but paid for what was left of the Maple to be taken down . They did however pay handsomely for two new AC units and all the chicken fencing and posts around the orchard not by my claiming damage , the adjuster told us since we had never made a claim she needed to justify her traveling up here so i let her twist my arm as long as my rate didn’t go up ! And yes we were in the cellar when it came through and no I will never believe again that tornadoes don’t go over hills … thats B.S ! 

[Chris 2,162]

Yes, I recall hearing growing up that we were safe because tornadoes won’t go over a hill. Well, we all know that’s not the case now, x 2 ( 2012 and then 2014 ).