Tornado Touches Down In Washington State Neighborhood*

POSTED: 1:09 pm PST January 10, 2008
UPDATED: 5:59 pm PST January 10, 2008

VANCOUVER, Wash. -- A rare tornado touched down Thursday in a
residential area of Vancouver, downing power lines, uprooting trees,
tossing shopping carts into cars and causing moments of fear.

Jim Flaherty, spokesman for the Vancouver Fire Department, said there
were no reports of injuries.

"It looks like we came through this pretty good," he said.

The extent of damage was unclear.

Utility officials said power to 1,200 customers was out.

Initial reports of roofs torn off buildings could not be confirmed.

Witnesses said a funnel cloud touched down in the Vancouver neighborhood
Hazel Dell.

Sgt. Scott Schanaker of the Clark County sheriff's office said the first
calls came in just after noon. Shortly afterward, multiple phone calls
came in reporting damage, primarily downed power lines.

Connie Storey of Vancouver told KGW-TV she was walking her dog when the
wind came up and "blew me across the street into my neighbor's cyclone
fence, where I hung on for dear life."

She said there was an "explosion of power lines," and branches, garbage
cans and recycling bins were strewn about.

The high winds lasted about 30 seconds before moving on, she said.

Another witness told of high winds nearly lifting her car at a
supermarket and blowing shopping carts into vehicles.

The National Weather Service issued, and then canceled, a tornado
warning. Meteorologists said they had detected the tornado but couldn't
estimate its wind speed.

"We saw the tornado on the radar ... and issued a tornado warning," said
Steve Todd, chief meteorologist for the National Weather Service in
Portland. "About the time we were issuing it, we got a report over there
from the emergency management folks that they had gotten a touchdown and
some damage."

Todd said the region of southwest Washington and northwest Oregon sees
only one or two tornadoes a year, most often in sparsely populated areas.

"We do see more of actually what we call funnel clouds," he said. "Those
are the same type of phenomenon only they don't touch down. As soon as
they touch down a funnel cloud changes from a funnel cloud to a tornado."

But, he said, Pacific Northwest tornadoes tend to be weaker than those
of the Midwest.