Gone but not forgotten

Five years later, there are no physical signs of the EF1 tornado that hit Logan at 3:20 p.m., on March 23, though the emotional damage remains for some residents.

• • •

Angie Chavez was at home as tornado touched down, she said the only warning she had was her porch erupting into pieces.

"I am still very much paranoid when the wind picks up," said Chavez.

QCS photo: Thomas Garcia

Angie Chavez points to the Volkswagen Beelte which was crushed by the trailer overturned by the tornado that struck Logan on March 23, 2007.

Chavez was home when the tornado damaged her porch, overturned a neighboring semi trailer filled with her pottery and ripped open a trailer directly behind her residents.

"My memory is not always the best," Chavez said. "Though I can remember the sounds, the shaking and the damage left behind as if it were yesterday."

Chavez said it only lasted a few moments, but the tornado left damage which took several months to clean up.

"The memories remain even after the repairs were done, and debris cleared," Chavez said.

• • •

The tornado continued north into a canyon emerging at the southern village limits of Logan, no sirens sounded and some said there was no 'train noise" as described by many other tornado witnesses.

• • •

Rhonda Miller of Logan can recall everything about that Friday afternoon even though she has since moved to Albuquerque.

"I can remember it like it was yesterday," Miller said. "I am certain God was watching over us that day."

Miller said she was feeding her two children and her niece, when her sister had called for a ride.

"I told my sister to wait cause I was feeding the kids," Miller said. " As I left I never looked outside and just threw a blanket over my son."

Miller said as she walked out it was calm and the whole sky was turning.

QCS file photo

The interior walls and door frames stand exposed after a tornado ripped the roof off Andy and Connie Jacksons home. The EF1 tornado struck logan at 3:20 p.m. March 23, 2007.

"They say you're supposed to hear a train or see a funnel," Miller said. "It was calm, quiet, no funnel. Then the wind just exploded."

Miller said her sister called and told her there was a tornado. She said she ran her son back into the house as her daughter got into the vehicle and her niece was standing in the driveway.

"I kept calling for my niece to come back to the house, but she was frozen," Miller said.

Miller said she picked up her niece and put her in the house just as she turned a mattress flew by followed by metal, wood and insulation.

"I told my daughter to get down, on the floor board of the car," Miller said. "I could hear my son and niece crying but found myself looked out of the house."

Miller said the screen door handle had broken off from the outside. She said she ran around to the back door and got the children inside situated then went out to get her daughter.

"There was so much damage done around us," Miller said. "I keep thinking back and saw I did everything wrong. I should have gotten all the kids in at once, though it just didn't work that way."

Miller said her niece and son do not recall that day because they were younger. However, she said she and her daughter still get on edge when the wind picks up.

"I don't like the wind, and still don't do well when it starts blowing real hard," Miller said. "At one point I had nightmare about tornados. Though some say that normal just part of living through one."

• • •

Connie Jackson has moved from Logan to Portales since the tornado, and though she lost consciousness during the tornado she still remember those few moments before she blacked out.

"I had been to Clovis shopping that day and had just got home as it had got windy," Jackson said. I parked the car and my husband Andy called for me to come out to the back porch."

Jackson said her husband was looking at a large board flying through the air. She said as she began to step through the backdoor onto the porch the door slammed into her throwing her to the floor.

"There was no sound just wind and then the roof was gone," Jackson said. "I I lived in southern Texas growing up and I could hear my mom in the back of head 'get to the bathroom, get to a closet' as I began struggled to crawl down the hall."

Jackson said her husband Andy was on the back porch through the entire incident. She said one of the last thing she remembers was hearing him call for the dog.

"I woke up in the emergency room," Jackson said. "I am thankful my injuries were not that severe."

Jackson said she was overwhelmed by the support from the community. She said the people of Logan were unbelievable with their outpouring of concern.

"People brought us food, toothbrushes and one even lent us a fifth wheel trailer so we didn't have to leave our lot," Jackson said.

• • •

Logan Village Manager Larry Wallin said the tornado struck without warning. It appeared right out of the river. In hindsight it could have been worse, he said.

"The school was empty and the residents of the trailer park it struck the worst were still at work," Wallin said.

Wallin said looking back on that day the clouds looked strange and you could feel something in the air.

"It struck so quickly, yet did so much damage in the short time it was on the ground," Wallin said.

Wallin said with the help of several surrounding communities the cleanup of debris went quickly.