CLOVIS, Calif. (KFSN) — Mangled sheet metal, toppled trees and a power pole snapped like a twig. It was anything but a normal day for Don Wright.
“All of a sudden, it sounded like a freight train,” says Don Wright, Clovis Resident.
Asleep inside when he tells Action News, a tornado tore through his Clovis property.
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“It was whipping. I had never seen it that powerful here in the Valley,” says Wright.
In a matter of seconds, his family’s horse barn was lifted by the strong wind gusts and sent flying through the air, landing yards short of their home.
The property is located off Highway 168. A video taken near Academy Avenue shows the dark funnel cloud as it left behind a trail of destruction.
According to a local storm report from the National Weather Service, the damage was consistent with an EF1 tornado, meaning peak wind gusts could have reached 110 miles per hour.
“It took us all by surprise. When’s the last time you heard anyone getting their place torn up by a tornado around here?” says Wright.
His mother was inside her home on the property when a tree fell on the roof. Luckily, she and everyone else inside at the time were okay. Their two horses were out in the pasture, shaken but untouched.
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“It could’ve been worse. The trees caught it. The bigger trees caught it,” says Wright.
PG&E and fire crews responded as several power lines also went down, leaving them in the dark.
Now, Don and his family are left to clean up the scattered debris as his home appears to have gone through a washing machine.
Don has lived in Clovis for nearly four decades and had never seen anything like this. With a smile, he tells me he’s glad he can tell the story.
“Kind of a metaphor for me for how close if God hadn’t been watching out for us,” says Wright.
Now, Don says his family will be focused on cleanup over the next several days and on dealing with insurance as they pick up the pieces.
