COVINGTON – Tornados ripped through the Miami Valley late Thursday evening, which led to damage to several properties in the farming community just outside of the town of Covington.
Significant property damage took place along Klinger Rd., Rangeline Rd., Hill Rd., and Greenville Falls-Clayton Rd. between the Stillwater River and Harris Creek. Fortunately there were no injuries suffered by local residents.
Several homes were damaged, as well as barns and garages. Much of the debris landed in open fields and on properties long distances away from where the severe damage was suffered.
“Man, it was crazy,” said local resident Brian Swinehart, who resides on Rangeline Rd. “Looking at this house, there isn’t much damage except a few trees down, but right across the road and next to us by the pond, there is all kind of damage. Some of the houses, barns, sheds and garages are destroyed – power lines are down and trees are rooted up. Thank God nobody was hurt.”
The storms began around 2:00pm and intensified dramatically in Covington around 8:15pm when sirens began to blare. There were power outages throughout much of the community and around 9:00pm the tornado passed through the Covington area leaving significant damage behind, primarily north of the village.
The National Weather Service confirmed that the tornado that passed through Covington had wind speeds between 111 and 135 miles-per-hour, which labels the tornado as n EF2.
Due to the circumstances, Covington Schools closed on Friday to allow students who live where property was damage time to mentally regroup from the terror they suffered. Plus, many of the roads were shut down to clear the debris, which prevented school buses from providing transportation for students to the school.