HILLSBORO, Ohio — Two tornadoes touched down in the Hillsboro area during heavy thunderstorms, the National Weather Service announced.
The NWS said an EF0 tornado touched down near the intersection of Danville and Roush Road in Highland County, damaging the roof and windows of one home just before 1 a.m. Saturday. The tornado continued down Roush Road, where a home on the north side of the road sustained roof damage. The tornado eventually dissipated east of Kesler Road.
An EF1 then touched down 3 miles north of Hillsboro minutes after the first. The NWS said the tornado removed a large portion of a roof from an outbuilding on Selph Road near Lewis Lane. The garage door of one home on Kincaid Road was also smashed. The NWS said the most intense damage was along Morrow Road, where surveyors found "numerous trees" snapped and uprooted and several outbuildings damaged. The tornado weakened about 5 miles northeast of Hillsboro.
Wil Burns and his family were inside their home when the tornado touched down. Moments before the tornado hit, Burns said, he got an alert on his phone.
"My wife and I, we got the kids in the center of the house," Burns said. "There's no basement, just crawl space, but it's the best spot for them...we had a 10-minute warning with the alert, so we're pretty fortunate."
The winds pushed a carport from his home and through his yard.
"We [heard] the low rumble sound," Burns said. "It wasn't quite like a freight train for us. It was like a distant jet that was low-flying or really big heavy vehicle on the road that just never seemed to pass."
Burns' backyard, where his family raises livestock, was also damaged — a chicken coop was destroyed and one of the family's rabbits was killed. While there is a lot to clean up, Burns said he is grateful his family is safe.
EF0 and EF1 tornadoes are considered weak, but bring winds between 65 and 110 miles per hour.
