Frankfort and Clinton County had not been with a major storm of any consequence since the Ice Storm of 1991.
That all changed Friday night as a confirmed tornado, classified as a F1.10, started near the Montgomery County/Clinton County line approximately two miles of Colfax. The tornado traveled along the ground moving towards Frankfort where it lifted near Green Lawn Cemetery.
The tornado, which was the first one to hit the area since a tornado hit the volunteer fire station in 2017, was on the ground for 6.79 miles and was nearly a mile wide. Thankfully, no one was killed and just one injury reported.
However, damage was extensive, especially on the western side of the county near Colfax.
“With (State Road) 29, we’ve got more polls to replace and we’ve got more bad weather coming in,” said Utility Service Board General Manager Todd Corrie. “We’re just keeping our fingers crossed that we’re able to get done what we need to get done because we have a bunch of these polls that are tied off to keep them from falling. But, if we get big winds and stuff again and those ropes break from too much pressure, we’re just going to get the domino effect and these are just going to keep coming down on us.”
At Monday night’s USB meeting, Corrie said were 42 broken polls of which he said nearly half would be replaced by Monday night.
Both Corrie and USB Chairman Kent Brewer were thankful to have extra help in town for the cleanup, especially the crew that came up from Lebanon.
“They have been a tremendous help,” said Corrie. “When we had five polls in a row, we could just let them go and do their thing because doing five polls is about a 10-hour job.”
Corrie said Lebanon Mayor Matt Gentry contacted Frankfort Mayor Judy Sheets if any help was needed. Gentry was then put in contact with Corrie.
Brewer said the substation that went out at the Clinton County Fairgrounds over the weekend was still down as of Monday night. Brewer added he was told the substation would be down at least four or five days and that was on Saturday.
“You take a lot of stuff for granted,” said Brewer. “We’re very fortunate with the crews we have when things go down.”
Brewer added some residents do not have power as yet. However, he said most of those had equipment ripped from their houses which have prevented them from having power. Once those problems are fixed, they will be hooked up soon afterwards.
A silver lining out of all of this could be from a meeting that Corrie was scheduled to have Tuesday afternoon that could lead to Frankfort and Clinton County getting some aid from FEMA.
Corrie added it will be at least two weeks before all the damage gets cleaned up and he said he won’t have any damage figures until then.