WOOLWICH, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- People in Woolwich are still talking about the mini-tornado that hit a rural section of the town Tuesday evening.
Pele Harrison says she was sitting on the deck of her house with her two sons and watched the tornado come through their yard. Harrison says it came quickly, snapped off the top of a tree, and tossed their trampoline nearly 100 feet across the yard and into the woods.
Harrison's neighbor, Maret Hansick, says she and her husband were eating supper on the deck, and heard a loud noise, "almost like a big truck letting off its brakes on a hill." Then, Hensick says, the wind started blowing very hard, and they saw a small funnel cloud in the air above the trees, headed towards Harrison's house. She says the twister passed between her deck and art studio, and did no damage.
The women say another neighbor did lose a large maple tree.
The National Weather Service has confirmed it was a small tornado. The NWS says the tornado covered about 1,000 feet and the path was just 20 yards wide. Strongest winds are estimated to have been 50-60 mph. Still, it was a tornado, not something people in Woolwich expect to see. "That's wild," says Harrison. "A confirmed tornado."
NEWS CENTER