CELINA (WLIO) - In the Mercer County area, homes, nearby stores, and manufacturing centers experienced damaged due to Thursday night's tornado.
On top of the power outage that occurred across the Mercer County area last night, many were impacted by the EF-1 Tornado one way or another sweeping through the area. Mercer County's EMA Director Mike Robbins provided an update on the toll that the severe weather took on the area.
"What we came up with was five majorly damaged homes, another five with minor damage, and this is FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) damage assessment, so minor damage to FEMA might be a little more than that if you own that home. They are looking at how long it will take to get somebody back living there or could still live there. There were probably 25 affective which could be a simple subsiding off for a few shingles off your house," added Robbins.
One Celina family are grateful to be alive after the tornado took their home. It wasn't long before they took shelter. "
We got down there (basement) in less than five minutes later before all of this took place. I came back up the steps and looked out and everything was gone," said Jim Knight.
"It ended up taking out the second story of our house as well as shaking the whole house. It took out our garage, our barn, and most of the buildings on our property. It virtually left us with no home, but our family and our friends have really rallied, and they even showed up before we did this morning to help us," added Sarah Knight.
An EF-1 Tornado has wind speeds up to 86 to 110 miles an hour.
