Destruction stuns Westfield residents

WESTFIELD, N.Y. (WIVB) - Chautauqua County became ground zero Monday night as two twisters touched down, one in Fredonia and the other in Westfield.

On the 10 and 11 o'clock news Monday night, Rachel Kingston showed viewers a barn in Westfield that had been completely blown off its foundation. But with the sun up on Tuesday, it revealed that right next to the downed barn was the roof to another barn that had blown across the road from a separate barn. It demonstrates the power of an EF2 tornado with winds over 100 mph.

"Certainly a very significant storm, especially for this time of year. It's very unusual. We looked back through the records, in the past 60 years we've not had tornadoes in November in western New York," said National Weather Service meteorologist Judy Levan.

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The EF2 tornado hit in Westfield around 5:10 p.m. on Monday with wind speeds estimated between 100 and 110 mph, throwing the roof of Dan Gelvan's barn into the woods. Trees fell down in all different directions is one of the things that convinced meteorologists that it was a tornado and not a different weather event. And when a massive tree is easily ripped down, meteorologists know the wind speed had to be at least 100 mph.

Neville Messinger said, "We always have them. They come through every two or three years. We always get one, and you got to watch out for yourself. That's all I can say."

The Westfield tornado was only 125 yards wide, but it cut across four miles in Westfield, leveling four more barns on the Hall farm on South Gale Road, including one barn that had stood for over a hundred years.

Taylor Hall said, "When I saw the damage for the first time, it felt like a member of the family died. That was that devastating initially. The fact that in those days they built them to last, and bottom line is, when you deal with a tornado, you're not going to win."

Most of the landowners seemed relieved. While their barns may have been destroyed, in many cases their homes escaped unscathed.

Sherry Mead said, "Well, that was something I don't ever want to go through again."

What's really incredible about the storm is that you can look 50 yards one way, and 50 yards the other, and see no damage at all. It was a narrow but extremely powerful swath that this tornado took. You can see more images from Monday's twister in Westfield in our photo gallery here.