Residents pick up the pieces following tornado

Residents pick up the pieces following tornado

Mitch Weber surveys the damage to a vehicle after a tree was uprooted following a tornado Thursday, Jan. 10, 2008, in Vancouver, Wash.

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Story Published: Jan 11, 2008 at 9:52 AM PST

Story Updated: Jan 11, 2008 at 11:31 AM PST

By KATU Web Staff and Associated Press

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CLARK COUNTY - A number of people remained without power Friday morning following a rare tornado that swept through Clark County a day earlier, leaving a path of destruction but amazingly causing no injuries to people.

The National Weather Service classified the tornado as an EF-1 with winds between 90 and 110 mph. The funnel was 1/4-mile wide and moved across a two-mile path starting at Vancouver Lake and up into Hazel Dell.

Vancouver is the site of the only deadly tornado to strike either Washington or Oregon. On April 5, 1972, a tornado killed six people, injured about 300 - including 70 from an elementary school - and caused roughly $3 million in damage.

While Thursday's tornado luckily hurt no one, it caused plenty of damage. Some of the worst damage was at the edge of Vancouver Lake, where the storm demolished the home of Vancouver Lake Crew.

More than 50 rowing shells, which cost thousands of dollars each, lay splintered on the shores. Two large trailers that served as the base for the nonprofit club lay twisted on the ground.

Dozens of volunteers helped pull chunks of rowing machines out of the bushes, and a canoe lay on the opposite shore.

It was a personal tragedy for the club's founder, Bill Kalenius, who had just finished chemotherapy and radiation treatment during the holidays.

The group is almost entirely run by volunteers. One of the docks is an Eagle Scout project.

And Kalenius had personally restored much of the donated equipment used by the group.

Club members planned to return to clean up the damage Friday.

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