Clark County residents still picking up pieces from tornadoes

Credit: DaytonDailyNews

Angie and Larry Yoakum are still dealing with the damage done to their family’s home after an EF-1 tornado tore through part of Clark County on April 3, the 44th anniverary of the deadly Xenia tornado.

The huge pine tree in the front yard that their family used to decorate for Christmas fell on top of her South River Road house during the storm. It’s been removed, but piles of brush and limbs remain outside.

Larry Yoakum, said that it could cost him as much as $1100 just to haul away the debris.

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The Yoakums said their insurance adjuster will be coming Friday to make an estimate. There’s visible damage to the home’s 18-year-old roof, shingles and siding.

“(The) lower roof will need to be replaced all the way around,” he said. “You can’t match it.”

Yoakum said the whole process has been stressful.

“It’s a hassle,” he said.

Down the road, Ryan Barclay said his clean up is basically complete, but now he’ll turn his efforts toward rebuilding.

He lost one of the barns on his Cortsville Road property during the storm — the same one that had been built to replace one that was destroyed by the 1974 Xenia tornado.

An adjacent barn was left standing, although it had also been damaged.

The Rife farm was hit hard by the tornado on April 3, 2018. JEFF GUERINI/STAFF

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He estimates that the total damage to his property and a property he owns down the road could be close to $50K.

Barclay said two barn builders came out Wednesday to speak with him about repair costs.

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On the other side of State Route 72, Randy Rife’s farm looks like a war zone. He said he and his wife, Julie Rife, have lived in their home for 34 years and have never dealt with a storm of this magnitude.

One grain bin is completely on its side, and two others are indented. Metal is scattered not only on the property, but across the road. Piles of loose bricks lay next to the house.

“I can’t believe just 95 mph winds did that,” Rife said.

Three of Rife’s ewes and one lamb were killed in last week’s storm. The south end of the barn that houses the sheep is completely destroyed, and Rife said an engineer has basically condemned the other half.

He said he’s been blessed by volunteers, like the Xenia High School Future Farmers of America, who have helped him with the clean up.

He plans to rebuild his hay barn just like it was, but reconstucting other buildings on his farm is still up in the air.

“That is the hardest thing now – being hammered with decisions,” he said.

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It could be months before the Rife farm is cleared of the damage from the storm.

“We got things that we had here, that we will probably never find,” he said.

But Rife is trying to keep in good spirits. He’s got a busy schedule at his sheep farm for this next few weeks — and he said he won’t be set back by Mother Nature.

“Life goes on, and we gotta keep charging forward,” Rife said. “We just don’t stop.”

No injuries or deaths have been reported from last’s weeks tornado touch down. An EF-1 tornado was also confirmed near Xenia.


By the numbers

90 — maximum wind speed for the EF-1 tornado

$50K — total estimates to rebuild damage on Ryan Barclay’s two South Charleston properties

4.3 — miles tornado travelled

$1100 — estimate to haul away debris from Angie and Larry Yoakum’s house

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