Tornado strikes Clovis, NM

National Weather Service ^ | March 23, 2007

[Strategerist]

SEVERE WEATHER STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ALBUQUERQUE NM 800 PM MDT FRI MAR 23 2007

...TORNADO WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR SOUTHEASTERN CURRY COUNTY UNTIL 815 PM MDT...

AT 758 PM MDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR AND SKYWARN SPOTTERS WERE TRACKING A TORNADO. THIS TORNADO WAS LOCATED IN CLOVIS...MOVING NORTH AT 25 MPH.

* THE TORNADO WILL BE NEAR... RANCHVALE AROUND 815 PM MDT...

A TORNADO WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 1000 PM MDT FRIDAY EVENING FOR EAST CENTRAL NEW MEXICO.

[Strategerist]

Clovis has a population of 30,000+ - Very scary storm on radar appeared to go right through the middle of town. Happened just now.

[razorback-bert]

DUCK!

[stayathomemom]

My sister used to live there. I wonder where it tracked?

[Jet Jaguar]

Cannon AFB and few F-16s still there and a few CV-22's possibly.

Hope they got what they have hangared in time.

[Jet Jaguar]

ping.

[Strategerist]

Seemed to weaken a tad just as it went through Clovis. Would seem to have tracked east of the Air Force Base, more in the downtown area.

[Jet Jaguar]

Thanks for the info.

Prayers for all.

[Strategerist]

From another board relaying info from media there was major tree and structure damage on the east and northeast side of Clovis.

[brytlea]

Oh gosh, I used to have relatives who lived there. My Dad lives in Roswell. Wonder if they got bad weather too?
susie

[Coldwater Creek]

I am originally from Portales,and have lots of family in Clovis.

[John W]

Recent local storm reports---

http://kamala.cod.edu/offs/KABQ/nwus55.chunk.html

[woofie]

Quick, save Norman Petty Studios

[Strategerist]

Nothing happened in Roswell at all. It was west of the Dry Line.

However, there is very bad flooding in Carlsbad.

[Armedanddangerous]

I just talked with a friend in Logan NM. He said half the town was blown away by a twister this afternoon.

the town is dark, but his community, which is just outside of town, still has utilities. they are watching out the window and listening with the weather radio nearby.

Several twisters have moved through in the distance, the last just about 40 minutes ago. He's a freeper named CONCHO.

[NRA2BFree]

I am originally from Portales,and have lots of family in Clovis.

My dad is from Clovis. I was born there and most of my extended family live in Clovis and Portales.

[NRA2BFree]

I just talked with a friend in Logan NM. He said half the town was blown away by a twister this afternoon.

the town is dark, but his community, which is just outside of town, still has utilities. they are watching out the window and listening with the weather radio nearby.

Several twisters have moved through in the distance, the last just about 40 minutes ago. He's a freeper named CONCHO.

Logan had 50 houses all over the city that were damaged. That's what they've been saying on KOAT TV. About 30 minutes ago there were a total of three tornadoes on the ground in the Clovis and Portales area.

[ptlurking]

Spent 4 years of my life in Clovis when stationed at Cannon AFB (1976 - 1980)
Very good memories...praying the town survives this with minimal damage.

[fieldmarshaldj]

My father spent his adolescent years in Clovis.

[brytlea]

Goodness, I better call Dad. My Mom always called when the weather was bad or whatever, but Dad...well, he's a guy and you know how guys are!
susie

[brytlea]

So funny to see people from NM! The state is crawling with my relatives. I hope to retire in Cloudcroft, eventually.
susie

[streetpreacher]

http://radar.weather.gov/radar.php?rid=fdx&product=N0R&overlay=11101111&loop=no

[NRA2BFree]

Check this one out!

It's a very dangerous storm!

[Armedanddangerous]

He went off line about 45 minutes ago unexpectedly. I don't know what happened..if the electric finally went out or what.

Need to try and get a call in.

He runs the areas water cooperative..which gets the water to the farmers. He has access to a lot of earthmoving gear and at least two huge generators that will be moved in sometime in the AM and are big enought to light the town up.

[NRA2BFree]

So funny to see people from NM! The state is crawling with my relatives. I hope to retire in Cloudcroft, eventually.

My sister in law is from Cloudcroft. Her parents owned a ski lodge there. She and my brother live in Alabama now, but she sure hates the humidity. They have to come back to NM every summer for a couple of weeks to get away from it. lol

[NRA2BFree]

He went off line about 45 minutes ago unexpectedly. I don't know what happened..if the electric finally went out or what.

Need to try and get a call in.

He runs the areas water cooperative..which gets the water to the farmers. He has access to a lot of earthmoving gear and at least two huge generators that will be moved in sometime in the AM and are big enought to light the town up.

I heard KOAT interview a woman who lived on the outskirts of Logan who went into town to see the damage and she said the whole town was hit with at least 50 structures either destroyed or damaged. Also, they did say the entire town was without power.

The problem is that the storms are still active with more warnings and more tornadoes on the ground.

Here is the current radar for that area.

[Stegall Tx]

Thanks for posting this. I just called the relatives and one cousin has not yet checked in. The storm looks like it is going to skirt around my Mom's place in West Texas, but I'm watching the radar.

[brytlea]

I lived for 5 years as a kid in Alamogordo, and then graduated from HS in Ruidoso (my Grandparents owned a fishing place where you could catch rainbow trout). I loved Ruidoso, but it's not the same. Cloudcroft still seems to be a sleepy little town, altho it might not be by the time I am ready to retire.
Called my Dad in Roswell tonight. They had hail the past 2 days, and he said they'd had rain, which thrilled him.
susie

[Coldwater Creek]

I just got home from being in the hospital for two weeks, and had to go to bed before I found out just where the tornado's hit. Can you give me anymore info?

[Coldwater Creek]

I would trade a month of Eastern New Mexico dry climate for 10 years of the humidity that we have in Tenn.

[John W]

A series of storms, producing at least 13 tornadoes, destroyed buildings and injured at least a dozen people, several critically, in an area along New Mexico's border with Texas, police said.

The worst damage was reported in the towns of Logan and Clovis, communities about 80 miles apart, police said.

The tornadoes, which were reported during a 5-hour period, damaged several buildings, downed power lines and sparked fires that were later extinguished in Clovis, town police Lt. James Schoeffel said.

Thirteen people from that area were hospitalized at the Plains Regional Medical Center with injuries. Five were in critical condition with head trauma, said Liz Crouch, the center's chief operating officer.

In Logan, three people were taken to a hospital in nearby Tucumcari, while others were treated at a local clinic, State Police Sgt. Andrew Tingwall said. An official at the Dr. Dan C. Trigg Memorial Hospital refused to say if the hospital was treating any storm victims.

A tornado destroyed roughly two dozen mobile homes and campers in Logan, state police said.

Hours later, another tornado rumbled through Clovis.

[Coldwater Creek]

Thanks. I Can't find my cell phone to call my family. I will have to wait until someone calls me to find it.

[mathluv]

What part of West Texas?

Dallas weather was showing this last night, and talking about it hitting Around Lubbock today, Dallas tomorrow.

[fieldmarshaldj]

I'm a lifelong resident of Nashville and I've never gotten used to the humidity here. The one thing I dislike about the dry Southwest is that every time I go outside, I get an electric shock with everything I touch ! =8-0

[Coldwater Creek]

That's true! LOL

[LibKill]

How strange. I never figured New Mexico for tornado country.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Pretty rare, but it happens. I saw one that briefly touched down just south of Albuquerque last year. Wasn't a very big one, but interesting all the same.

The weather's been weird this year. Got lot's of snow, then a couple weeks of 60-70 weather, and now it's snowing again. (atleast at my place)

[LibKill]

Again, how weird is all that?

In Oklahoma one EXPECTS tornados. That is where tornados are born!

In Texas we have learned to live with tornados. Tornados born in Oklahoma come here to die.

But New Mexico?

[Tijeras_Slim]

Usually we don't need tornadoes, the regular winds are enough to drive junked appliances through the air. :)

Now the sun's out. Go figure.

[Armedanddangerous]

Spoke with Mrs. Concho at 010:30 this AM.

She told me Concho is helping move in earth moving gear, a bridge truck, several end loaders, dozers and other important things.

She noted that 25% of the buildings in town are on the ground, but electric came back on line in Logan about 23:00 Friday.

She had no idea regarding casualties, but felt there certainly were some because she saw numerous ambulances moving about.

[NRA2BFree]

Spoke with Mrs. Concho at 010:30 this AM.

She told me Concho is helping move in earth moving gear, a bridge truck, several end loaders, dozers and other important things.

She noted that 25% of the buildings in town are on the ground, but electric came back on line in Logan about 23:00 Friday.

She had no idea regarding casualties, but felt there certainly were some because she saw numerous ambulances moving about.

It's been all over Fox News this morning. They are showing video of some of the destruction. We had a total of 13 tornadoes on the ground yesterday/last night. There are at least 5 people who were critically injured, and many more in serious condition who were all hospitalized. Besides them, a lot of scrapes and bruises that didn't require hospitalization. This is a very dangerous storm system, and where ever it goes, people had better be alert. This was the worst tornado outbreak in NM since storms have been recorded.

When I was growing up, I used to spend the entire summer with my grandparents in Clovis, and I can remember having to run down into the basement many times. I didn't know much about it but I do remember my grandmother calling them "big dust storms." All my younger years I used to think that's what they were. Had I known then, what I know now, I would have been terrified. LOL

Four years ago, I got hit by a tornado and that was the worst experience of my life, so I don't want to see anyone go through what I did. I pay very close attention to wind, clouds and temperature since that time. When conditions are like they were the day I got hit, I try to give a heads up to people I know who live in tornado areas. That said, tornadoes can happen anywhere if the conditions are right. I live at 6700 feet in the mountains and we're not supposed to get tornadoes here, but unfortunately, we did have one, and it hit my house.

[elkfersupper]

I'm 200 miles away.

Contrary to my usual circumstances in which things turn to crap immediately after I acquire them, I sold 2 properties last month out of my Father's estate which were torn to shreds.

The rest are okay, except for minor damage, and my sister's place is unscathed.

We're all okay for now.

Tornado season seems to be starting a little early.

Has to be global warming and George Bush's fault.

[elkfersupper]

My dad is from Clovis. I was born there and most of my extended family live in Clovis and Portales.

Dittos on that, only add my dear departed mother and another 2 generations.

[elkfersupper]

How strange. I never figured New Mexico for tornado country.

We have normal Spring days that will suck your eyeglasses off your head and unseat your shirt tail.

I remember standing outside our home in Clovis watching the funnel clouds pass by just for fun.

[Fred Hayek]

Clovis is not too far from the Texas Panhandle. Flat. Almost a transition area between high prairie and desert.

[NRA2BFree]

Dittos on that, only add my dear departed mother and another 2 generations.

My grandparents, uncles and aunts are all buried in Clovis. Small world. Maybe we're cousins. LOL! When I was living in Albuquerque many years ago, I actually did run into a cousin in a bar. He was dancing with my friend and he came back over to the table and she introduced me to him, and I said, "hey, I have a cousin by that name." We had no clue until we started talking and it turned out that we were second cousins. LOL!

[Babybluebbw]

If anyone would like to see pictures of the damage done by the tornado, you can go here:

http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-Ixo02V8zeqSCauBeo0d_cpw5AQ--?cq=1&p=3881

[Jet Jaguar]

Thank you.

[Muleteam1]

Heleneta Blevins died the way she lived — surrounded by what she held most dear, her family.

The 90-year-old Clovis resident passed away in her eldest son’s home around 5 a.m. Tuesday, according to family members who removed her from a Clovis hospital so she could be near family and friends in her last moments.

Her death marks the first tornado fatality in Clovis’ 100-year history, according to Clovis News Journal archives and www.tornadoproject.com.

“We knew she was going,” said her eldest son, Bob Blevins.

“We gathered around ... just to have her close,” he said.

A hospice provided services for the family, he said.

“The atmosphere was peaceful,” said Bob’s wife, Lydia Blevins. “We sat around and told stories about her.”

Heleneta was born in 1916 in Eureka, Kan. She came to Clovis with her husband, who found a job with the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway. She worked as a telephone operator and baby sat for a while. However, she spent most of her life as a homemaker.

“You always saw her with an apron on,” Lydia Blevins said.

“She was from the old school. She believed in staying home and taking care of her family.”

Heleneta’s only daughter and first born, Betty Denton, had her last conversation with her mother about a week ago. She stopped by the trailer where Heleneta lived alone, and the pair chatted about the family. Heleneta wanted to know everyone was OK, Denton said. Then, the soap opera Heleneta watched every weekday came on, and her daughter left.

The tornado that ripped through Clovis on Friday sucked Heleneta and her youngest son, Jim, into the air, the son said. They were dumped yards away from Heleneta’s trailer, which was tucked behind Jim’s home on South Prince Street.

A labyrinth of rubble remains there.

Her son’s home still stands, but her trailer was in a thousand pieces Tuesday afternoon. Its walls, stripped bare, were embedded in two trees. Tufts of yellow insulation covered the grass. The door of a chain-link fence that wrapped around the trailer was the only tangible remnant of the inviting home Heleneta once kept.

“Even at 90, when you walked into her door, she said, ‘What can I get you?’ She always had soda in her fridge. She made awesome macaroni and cheese and strawberry pie,” recalled her granddaughter Shannon Pettigrew.

By Tuesday evening, the trailer walls had been unwrapped from the trees and reminders of what happened there were slowly disappearing.

The last recorded death from a tornado in New Mexico was in 1974 in Valencia County, according to the Albuquerque National Weather Service.

The night the tornado hit Clovis, Jim Blevins had no idea it was racing toward his neighborhood.

He left his home to check on his mother, as he often did. Heleneta was stubborn, her family said, and insisted on living on her own. Her health was good, though time had slowed her down. She used her cane sporadically and wanted to drive a Jeep, though she gave up driving about a year ago. Jim Blevins said it made him feel better she was so close.

As he walked to his mother’s trailer that night, hail began to fall so hard it burned his ears. Then, it quit and there was silence, Jim said.

“I knew then it was bad,” said Jim, who hid himself and mother inside a closet.

He heard an explosion and was pummeled by debris. His glasses were thrown from his face and wounds covered his body. That didn’t stop him from looking for his mother.

He found her in a field yards away.

Her trailer was one of about 75 homes and business destroyed in the storm. About 500 structures were damaged.

About 35 people were injured in the storm. One Clovis man, Walter Cravy, also 90, remained in critical condition in a Lubbock hospital Tuesday.

Reese Blevins remembers this about his grandmother: He snuck sugar from her kitchen to sprinkle on his Cap’n Crunch cereal.

“I thought she would get mad. But once she saw me do it, and said, ‘You eat it like you want to,” Reese said.

Hemorrhaging in Heleneta’s brain from a head trauma left little hope, family said.

The storm left Jim Blevins with broken ribs, bruising and cuts. As bulldozers cleared debris from his back yard Tuesday, he remembered his mother.

“She was just the sweetest person,” he said.

Others thought so, too.

She carried a purse full of candy for her nine grandchildren and 21 great-grandchildren, Pettigrew said. She brought pillows for her grandchildren on road trips, Lydia Blevins said. She never stopped cooking for her family. She fed her daschund dog, Heidi, cereal and pizza, Jim Blevins said.

On Tuesday, Heidi was tied to a tree in Jim’s back yard as TV crews rushed around, people carted away armloads of splintered lumber, and bulldozers pushed around rubble.

Family said the dog’s behavior has been strange since the tornado. They aren’t sure yet who will care for her.

She looked lost. The trailer she lived in and the woman who loved her are gone.

Clovis News Journal - March 27, 2007.

Personal note from Muleteam1: I just learned of this very sad information today. Mr. and Mrs. Blevins lived directly across the street from my family in the 1970s. Our small mobile home was about 50' from the Blevins house. Enough cannot be said about how nice a person Mrs. Blevins was. Since that time, my family has lived in three states and we have yet to live next to nicer folks. May God bless the Blevins family and ease their sadness.