Page 12 - September Banner 2017_Neat

Page 12 September 2017
C o m m u n i t y news
Manahan Road Tornado
Kathleen O’Connor
They were only calling for a
heavy rain on Friday night, August
4, 2017, but what they got in the
Deerfield Valley was nearly deadly.
According to the Potomac Edison
line worker who talked with Dicky
Manahan on Saturday morning,
August 5, it started in Hagerstown
with a high-pressure system about
100 feet up that traveled a 22-mile
path, up and over South Mountain,
touching down on the high end of
Manahan Road at the lower end of
the Harbaugh Valley.
“I heard a loud bang,” Dicky’s
wife, Patty, said. “Dicky slept
through it, but I couldn’t sleep.
I heard someone’s grill blowing
away.” The power went out. Early
the next morning, Dicky and Patty
went out in the truck to check on
the cows, because they had not come
in. One calf was missing.
That was when Dicky saw
his field corn with a large swath
flattened by the tornado. If his crop
was destroyed, how was he going to
feed his cows? Would his insurance
cover the crop loss?
They began to survey the
damage. Not only was the corn
down, but a 200-foot-wide hole had
also been carved out of the forest
on his land, above the house and
cornfield, with huge trees down in
every direction.
“That hole in the forest will
be there the rest of my life and
probably my great grandchildren’s
lives,” Dicky said, pointing out the
distant trees on the other side of
the hole. “It must have lifted up
as the land went down the valley.
That might be why it didn’t do more
damage, but took the tops of the
trees as it went forward.”
Emmitsburg Vol. Ambulance Co., 17701 Creamery Rd., Emmitsburg
BINGO BASH
22 Games Paying $250.00 EACH!
THREE $1000.00 Jackpots & a Meal!
Sept. 16, 2017
Doors open @ 4 p.m.
Games @ 7 p.m.
$40.00 in Advance
$50.00 at the Door
Seating is fi rst come, fi rst served.
EVAC has the right to lower payouts if 200 tickets aren‛t sold.
The Catoctin Banner Newspaper
Photos by Kathleen O’Connor
Dicky Manahan points out the 200-foot-wide hole in the forest on his land after the
tornado came through on August 4, 2017.
Among the trees down, two trees fell on Dicky’s sawmill, breaking all of the trusses in
the roof.
Among the trees down was one
that nearly fell on his neighbor’s
house, and two that fell on his
sawmill, breaking all the trusses in
the roof. All that kept the roof from
collapsing on his Cyclo Air 800 corn
planter was the stack of skids that
Pam Ellison 240-472-3484
For Tickets or Info:
Mary Lou 240-285-3184
www.TheCatoctinBanner.com
reached up to the rafters. “I have
to get the corn planter out of there
before the roof collapses,” Dicky
warned.
The sweet corn was down, too.
Patty and Dicky had just spent the
better part of Friday loading up at
least six feedbags full of sweet corn
for the Thurmont Farmer’s Market
Saturday morning, storing them
in a neighbor’s cooler. The money,
tables, and signage were ready to
go, but with all the devastation and
power outage Saturday morning,
they couldn’t get the corn to market,
and it would never keep another
week until the next market. “All
that work, and we couldn’t sell any
of it,” Patty shared. So they have
generously been giving it away to
their neighbors.
Their neighbors down Manahan
Road, Mike and Denise Dujardin,
heard two loud whines and bangs in
Play Our Where Am I? and Hidden Object Games on page 9!
Published by www.EPlusPromotes.com
the middle of the storm. As soon as
it appeared safe, around 4:00 in the
morning, they, and their daughter
Jennifer, went out with flashlights to
survey the thicket of trees that were
down in the woods, very near their
house. Many of them were snapped
off about 20 feet up. “As soon as we
heard about the damage at Dicky’s,
we went up to see how we could
help,” Denise said. “He was very
shaken and crying. I could hardly
bear watching it,” she said with
much feeling.
Back on the farm, surveying the
loss of forest, crop, calf, and barn,
Dicky was devastated. He kept
trying to call the insurance, but
had not yet heard back about what
might be covered. “He cried all
night,” Patty told me.
However, Sunday morning, they
took a deep breath and counted
their blessings, sharing and praying
with friends and neighbors at the
Deerfield United Methodist Church.
No one was hurt, and not a shingle
was off a roof anywhere in the
valley. What’s more, although the
Catoctin Mountain Park Owen’s
Creek Campground was full up
Friday night and many trees blocked
the Foxville–Deerfield Road past the
entrance, no campers were hurt, and
the Catoctin Mountain Park rangers
had cleared the roads.
Farther down Manahan Road,
Louise Delauter and another
neighbor had large pine trees down;
but, thankfully, Louise’s nearly 10-
foot circumference silver maple was
not damaged. Although a tree had
fallen on another neighbor’s car, he
was not hurt.
To multiply blessings, as the sun
came out on Sunday, the calf came
home and the corn began to stand
up again! “He must have gotten
tangled in the downed trees and
took a while to find his way out,”
Dicky explained. “I believe the corn
will be alright.”
Thanks be to God, all turned
out well, despite the sawmill barn
damage. “Some of us have been
considering how we can have a
barn-raising for Dicky and Patty,”
neighbor, Denise, hinted. “He does
so much for all of us, mowing and
plowing snow and all…”
Surely, this is a sign of a
community that cares and really
means it.