Penn. First Responders Recall Campbelltown tornado

July 12--Part 3

Bill Jurell sat on the front porch of his South Londonderry Township home and watched the storm approach Campbelltown.

"It got real dark. Kind of a green color, going down (Route) 322," Jurell, who was fire chief of the Campbelltown Fire Co. at the time, said about the weather the afternoon of July 14, 2004.

"It almost sounded like a train going through town," he said. The storm seemed like it was south of Route 322, he said.

His pager went off at 3:05 p.m. that day, initially for a tree across the roadway on Carriage Road in the Country Squire Estates development.

Jurell headed over to the call, as debris bounced off his Dodge Durango. As soon as he made the turn from Route 322 onto Route 117, he knew the situation was far more serious.

"There were poles down, wires (down), houses completely gone. I'll never forget it," he said. He called it a once in a lifetime experience.

Then, they started getting numerous calls about people trapped in basements of homes in the development.

He called in to the 9-1-1 dispatch center for help.

The F3 tornado with winds approaching 200 mph swept through the South Londonderry Township development, destroying more than 30 homes. Twenty-four people injured in the storm were taken to Hershey Medical Center. One of them was critically hurt.

Jurell credits a contractor with helping first responders get to the storm victims quickly.

The contractor was using a front-end loader to dig a basement at Carriage Road and Coachman Lane when the storm hit.

When he saw the storm approach, the contractor laid under the machine until the tornado passed, Jurell said. He said the contractor saw the front-end loader rock back and forth as the tornado passed over him.

As soon as the storm passed, the contractor climbed back into his machine and drove up the street to begin clearing debris, the former fire chief said. He asked Jurell what he could do and the former fire chief told him to clear debris from the street. He pushed the debris into yards, saving firefighters from spending their time clearing it from the streets, the former fire chief said.

Soon, several others brought in more equipment to clear the streets so the firefighters could get around the development.

First responders and residents were fortunate that no fires broke out in the development after the storm, Jurell said. There were gas leaks everywhere in the development, but the tornado first knocked out electricity in the area, he said. Half of the houses in the development had gas, he said.

"It took everything out from 322 out to Beech Street," he said.

Fire departments from other municipalities in the county had a hard time getting into the area because of all the debris, trees and wires that blocked the roads, Jurell said.

"There were houses that were completely taken off the foundations," he said. "I hope we never see one like that again."

One memory of the tornado that stands out for Jurell is the help people provided to the storm victims and recovery efforts.

"The community was outstanding, pulling together as far as help," he said. The Campbelltown Fire Co. Ladies Auxiliary opened up the kitchen at the firehouse and fed first responders and residents.

Fire departments from as far away as Maryland went to Campbelltown to help with the cleanup, he said. Fire companies from surrounding counties also assisted, he said. The Campbelltown Fire Co. could not have done it on its own, Jurell said.

On the first day, the Pennsylvania National Guard pitched in as well as Lowe's, Home Depot and other businesses provided supplies for the cleanup. "They brought everything you could think of," he said.

Volunteers came out of nowhere to help with the cleanup, he said. Their first priority was clearing debris from the roads.

Derry Township provided large tub grinders to grind up trees that had been toppled by the storm. Several other townships brought in chipping machines behind pickup trucks to dispose of tree limbs.

Jurell said one person was put in charge of directing all the volunteers who showed up to help with the cleanup. Some people brought in clothing and other items for the residents. One woman volunteered to give massages to tired first responders.

"It went outstandingly well for the conditions that we had to deal with," Jurell said.

The first responders and volunteers went through about six tractor-trailer loads of water over the course of three weeks, he said.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency brought in a helicopter to give officials an aerial view of the tornado's destruction, but Jurell never got a chance to get a ride. The only area he saw was Carriage Road and Gentry Drive, he said. He spent much of those three weeks in the firehouse.

The tornado struck at a fortunate time of day, Jurell said. Many residents were at work.

"It could have been a lot worse," he said, adding he was amazed no one was killed.

Jody Lenington, the most seriously injured resident, visited Jurell after her release from the hospital and thanked him.

At the time of the Campbelltown tornado, John W. Breive was working as an office manager at Lawn EMS and went out on ambulance calls when needed. "I know the weather was kind of strange that whole morning." said Breive, who is now emergency management coordinator for western Lebanon County, which covers Palmyra and Mt. Gretna boroughs and the townships of South Londonderry and South Annville.

When the rainstorm hit, he saw tornado warnings for Lancaster County, figured it wouldn't affect Lebanon County and did not worry about it. That afternoon, he ran into Jim Hess, the Lawn assistant fire chief, about the time the Lawn siren went off.

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Hess said to him, "You going someplace?"

Breive replied, "It sounds like both of us might be."

See also:

Residents officials recall chaotic day

Officials say county better prepared for severe weather

Photos then and now: Country Squire Estates

Life is good but not the same for most seriously injured victim

Tornado destroys a piece of history

Campbelltown tornado: Your stories

Lawn ambulance was dispatched for a residential rescue in South Londonderry Township. He contacted his work partner who was at home and told him to meet him at the scene. He said he did not realize at that point what had happened, Breive said.

Driving the Lawn ambulance, Breive headed off to the call but couldn't get into Campbelltown.

"Every road I tried was kind of blocked," he said.

On the fire radio, Breive heard Jurell report that he had arrived on the scene and that he had spotted a collapsed house.

Breive said he finally got into Campbelltown by way of School House Road. When he arrived, he was pressed into action and was stunned by what he saw. Breive said he had never seen that kind of destruction, even when he was in the military.

He was directed to pick up a patient to transport to Hershey Medical, so he grabbed a man who had been in his first-aid class to help him.

They loaded the patient into the ambulance and headed off to HMC.

"The medical center was set up, they were ready for it. They had their disaster plan in place," Breive said.

He got a surprise as they headed back to South Londonderry Township.

"It was the first time and only time I had a police escort from Derry Township all the way to Campbelltown," he said.

There were few serious injuries probably because of the time of day the tornado struck and people were not home, he said.

"Had it hit at suppertime, things might have been different," he said.

Matt Clements, talks about his experiences from the July 14, 2004 tornado that struck Country Squire Estates in Campbelltown. Jeremy Long -- Lebanon Daily News

In July 2004, Matt Clements had just been named to head the Lebanon County Hazardous Materials team. On that July afternoon, he was at the hazardous materials building off Oak Street near the municipal building preparing for hazardous materials training that weekend.

Clements, now a city firefighter, was notified about the storm and he headed over to the EMA office in the courthouse to pick up then-EMA director Dan Kauffman. As they drove out Colebrook Road, they ran into the same problem other first responders faced -- debris across the road. Kauffman drove around a downed tree on Colebrook Road and continued on to Campbelltown, he said.

On their way to Campbelltown, Clements said he and Kauffman discussed what they would need once they arrived at the scene of the tornado, such as shelters, resources and what agencies they needed to notify.

"(Route) 322 was the worst," he said. They stopped and searched several damaged homes for residents between Fontana and Campbelltown. They found no one trapped inside but came across a propane gas tank leak.

EMA staff initially helped in some of the search for victims and later on assessing damage to the homes, he said. He said the EMA staff helped out wherever they were needed.

"There was just so much to do. You didn't have one task," Clements said.

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