Tornado rips through Chautauqua Lake Estates
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Mayville, NY - A tornado in Chautauqua County ripped through the Chautauqua Lake Estates in Mayville Saturday evening. Numerous units were damaged but no one was seriously injured. There was also damage to the racquet and golf clubs.
Eyewitnesses to the storm said the tornado crossed Chautauqua Lake and cut a path for the Estates. It lasted only a few moments, but long enough to scoop up a kayak from the lake and send it through a window several hundred feet away. Several people observed the tornado's destruction.
"We could see the water swirling up out of the lake," said Renee Monaco who owns a summer home in Mayville. "The funnel cloud had touched down at this point and it was skipping across the lake."
It was a scene no one near Chautauqua Lake could believe. A tornado, as clear as day, over the water heading for shore. "As we're running back to shore we're still watching this thing go across the lake and before we knew it it had come up here to the condos," said Monaco.
Inside one of the Chautauqua Lake Estates condos was Amanda Lopuchovsky and her family, on vacation from Ohio. "We saw the trees part and there's just this big thing circling and it was coming across the lake right at us," said Lopuchovsky. With seconds to spare her father rushed everyone into the bathroom. "It finally came and it was just like a bunch of pressure and our ears were popping and it was like a train noise," said Lupochovsky. "I was freaking out. It felt like the place was going to explode and it was just crazy."
Jim Fix of Batavia was one of the lucky ones. His recently purchased unit wasn't damaged, but his kayak was. "I was glad it didn't hit anybody," said Fix. "That was the other thing, was anybody in there, did they get hurt?"
The tornado was selectively ruthless in meting out its damage. One end of the unit was destroyed, while the other end was barely touched. "I feel for these people that lost all this but luckily nobody was hurt," said Monaco.
Already the clean up is underway. Homes can be fixed and so can boats. Chautauqua Lake is peaceful now, but no one will forget the night a tornado raced across and left a path of destruction.