A tornado touchdown briefly in Newton County along Hwy. 80 between Newton and Lawrence on Tuesday morning, leaving a path of snapped trees and also damaged several businesses and homes in its path.
The National Weather Service confirmed that an EF-1 Tornado touchdown along Hwy. 80 from Lawrence to Newton. It had a maximum wind speed of 100 mph with a maximum width of 100 yards and was on the ground for four miles. It was down for five minutes from 7:16-7:21 a.m. Tuesday.
A tornado also touchdown in southern Lake from 7:09-7:12 a.m. Tuesday and covered nearly three miles with a maximum wind speed of 90 mph.
The worst of the damage appeared to be along Hwy. 80 from between CMRC and Morgan Field Road on Hwy. 80.
One of the homes that received the most damage was the home of Mary Logan at the intersection of Morgan Field Road and Hwy. 80. Doss Auto Body shop also received heavy damage. It had significant roof damage, the second time since May 2021 that he has seen weather damage.
Frankie Johnson, spokesman for CMRC, said that they appeared to have minor damage on its campus, but no one was hurt.
“We were very fortunate that it appeared to lift right before it got to us,” Johnson said. “Everyone is OK on our campus including the clients and our employees. Everyone is just a bit shook up, but other than that, we only had minor damage from a few shingles being torn off.”
The storm occurred as students and teachers were beginning to arrive at school, but there were no apparent issues with travel to and from school.
