By Marda Johnson/The Lebanon Reporter
Elizaville — It never even rained during the Monday evening storm at the rural Boone County home of Ed and Sandy Chambers, but the wind was enough to cause the glass patio table to shatter and a very old black ash tree to snap.
Standing in her backyard shortly after the wind storm, Sandy Chambers had to admit it was the worst weather she’s seen in the six or so years she’s lived on County Road 350 E. near Ind. 47. Her father, Floyd Cragun, has lived in the house next door for 59 years. He’s never seen worse weather either.
Still, it could have been worse.
About 6:30 p.m. Monday reports of severe weather, and even an unconfirmed funnel cloud and tornado touchdown, were reported in Boone County in a path from Thorntown to Elizaville along Ind. 47 and then near U.S. 421 between Lebanon and Zionsville, where power lines were downed.
Monday afternoon the Chambers’ had been outside and they moved in before the foul weather approached.
When the storm hit at the Chambers’, Sandy was looking out the window. She said all she could see was a wall of dirt blowing across the field in her direction. The Chambers’ had left their umbrella up over their glass table, and the wind caught that and toppled the table, breaking the glass. She heard a crack and a black ash in her yard snapped near its base.
“”I’ve never seen anything like it,” she said.
Earlier in the day, workers put the finishing touches on a tree house in the Chambers backyard. The tree house, being built for the benefit of the Chambers’ grandchildren, had been under construction for three days. The massive tree felled by the wind stood no more than 15 yards from the tree house, missing the newly constructed sandbox, swing set, and numerous toys.
Kristi Patrick, the Chambers’ daughter, said she had wanted that tree to be used for the tree house.
The neighboring tree was used instead, because the black ash had the best limb in the yard for a tire swing.
“Now I’m so glad they didn’t use that one,” Patrick said.
Sandy said the damaged tree had provided lots of shade for the yard, the swing set, and the area where the sandbox had been built.
“It was a nice tree,” she said. “But at least the tree house didn’t move.”
The forecast calls for additional storms the next few days, and a few of those could be severe.
