News : Storms cause wind and water damage throughout county

While Vinton residents were apparently spared any major damage in this afternoon's storms, other areas of Benton County were not so fortunate.

Houses in the area of Taylor Avenue and Meadow View Drive on the west edge of Urbana -- where several homes had sustained damage during the wind storm of July 11, 2011 -- were damaged again by what residents described as a tornado on Monday afternoon. Hours earlier, the neighborhood streets had been flooded by the torrential rains of Sunday night.

On Monday afternoon, a roof was lifted almost entirely from one house; garages were destroyed and siding was ripped off the front of another attached garage.

Don Westerdorf's home at 2450 Taylor was among the most-seriously damaged; he said other parts of his house were affected by the 2011 wind storm.

In addition to the damage to buildings, some LP tanks were blown off their foundations and rolled into neighbor's yards. Crews from TJ Gas arrived to secure those tanks and prevent gas leaks.

Several people in the neighborhood described seeing a twister.

"My neighbor said he saw a tornado," says Vinton-Shellsburg teacher Stephanie Francois-Miller, who rode out the storm in her basement.

Francois-Miller said her family, which moved in December into a house which had lost its roof in 2011, was very fortunate this time.

"We are fine," she said. "We are so lucky that we didn't even get water in the basement last night, either. Neighbors waded through waist-deep water to check on us." Four of Francois-Miller's neighbors had water surrounding their homes Sunday night, she said. "The family across from us tore out their carpet and dry wall from their basement today. Luckily they sustained no damage in today's storm," she adds. Urbana resident Josh Schwartz said the community support for the affected neighborhood was impressive. In addition to the 30-40 people who volunteered to help clean up after the storm, Center Point Foods and The Pizza Place each donated food to both the affected families and the volunteers. Volunteers, said Schwartz, included members of the Urbana and Maynard fire departments. Also the local FedEx hub provided a truck to load the contents of one home that was unoccuable. "It is a true testament to the pride and character of a business when they take it upon themselves to gladly donate food to victims of disasters such as the tornado that came through Urbana," said Schwartz, adding that he encourages local residents to visit those businesses. Benton County Emergency Management Director Scott Hansen said the Newhall and Mount Auburn areas also reported significant wind damage in some areas.

In Vinton, First Avenue between 2nd and 3rd Street was under water for a while, as were a few other streets. Some residents reported limbs breaking from trees.

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