A rare tornado hit Puyallup, WA on Monday morning, destroying buildings and tipping a train over, as reported by King5 News. The tornado was an EF1, 75 yards wide and was on the ground for about five minutes traveling at 110 mph. Even with all the damage caused within such a short time, no injuries were reported.
An old barn in Puyallup, WA destroyed by the tornado. 9/30/2013 Photo Credit: Clark County Fire District No. 3
“My first instinct, I thought it was an earthquake. Honestly, I never heard of weather like this, at least in Washington state,” said Kirk Ransden, who was inside Northwest Door when a tornado ripped across the factory, the length of several football fields.
“We were in the building and it sounded like a vacuum starting. It was really loud, kinda high pitched. A big boom and I saw a ripple through the ceiling and then everything came through, then water starting pouring,” he said.
Although there were no physical injuries from the tornado in Washington, it injured the city in another way. The amount of damage to buildings and homes will take months to fix. Not to mention, the evacuation and destruction of the Northwest Door Factory and power outages throughout the area.
Washington has tornadoes every year, but they are normally small and barely cause damage. However, the biggest one that has caused deaths occurred in 1972 in Vancouver, WA, according to the Weather Channel.
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