Tornado strikes Oregon community

AURORA, Ore. (KATU) – When the weather near Canby, Oregon turned extreme, Linda Tate grabbed her phone and started recording.

“I saw some pretty black clouds and I figured it was pretty close,” said Tate, who witnessed a tornado.

She ran next door to check on her elderly father. “I was scared… I was scared for my family.” Then she saw the funnel. “Your heart just drops, because you suddenly realize, you have no control, none, Mother Nature has taken over.”

Chloe Corless said she survived the tornado. “They were like well you guys just survived your first tornado warning.”

Corless had been waiting all day for the Molalla homecoming parade, but the school pushed it back because of the warning. All the students in the parade had to shelter in place.

“Everyone was against the wall sitting down in the middle kind of in the hallway and they said stay away from glass,” Corless explained. Thankfully, the warning was lifted.

Further west, damage was already done near the Aurora Aiport. “It tore the chains out of the ground, it was real powerful,” said one aviator, identified only as “Bruce.”

Bruce has been flying out of the airport since 1974. He said he’s never seen anything like it. “We’ve had a lot of different weather, strong winds, but never a tornado.”

Tate says it’s another example of taking tornado warnings seriously. She said they couldn’t see anything until it was right in front of her.

© 2024 KOBI-TV NBC5. All rights reserved unless otherwise stated.

Skip to content