Sunday, April 09, 2000
The roof went straight up, the house flew away
The Tornado: One Year Later
BY WALT SCHAEFER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
ADDYSTON - Peggy Hawkins was in bed, just waking up, while and her husband, Tony, an assistant pastor at Phillip Chapel Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, was in morning prayer when their house blew away - literally.
“I was in bed, looking at the room one minute and a second later I was looking across the street,” Mrs. Hawkins said. “It just blew the house away. It just sounded like an explosion and the roof of the house was ripped off first and went straight up in the air,” Mrs. Hawkins said.
The Hawkins' home was swept away, while a stone's throw away other buildings stood unscathed. No other significant damage occurred in this quiet Ohio River village west of Cincinnati
Miraculously, none of the Hawkins family was injured. Tony, Peggy, their daughter Brandiex and son, Jay, all escaped.
After the tornado, the Hawkins family lived in a Sayler Park house owned by a friend, Alfred Wilson, and moved back to Addyston in October after finding a house to rent.
“We love it in Addyston, the people are so friendly,” Mr. Hawkins said. “I don't think they expected anything like this to happen. I think the mindset was that it would never happen here. I think people feel that way until something does occur where they live.”
“Thunder still scares me,” said Brandiex, a student at Taylor High School. “We go to the basement.”
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Crisis response: 'I'm the person who saved my family'
Sense of humor turns overwhelmed to upbeat
Day of thanksgiving for those who helped
Disaster team helped, then quietly left
Lessons in the whirlwind
Memories of kindness ease memories of fear
More and better sirens expand storms warnings
Painting portrays sunflower rebirth
The graveyard of the trees
The roof went straight up, the house flew away
Tree a reminder of a boss who cared
Tornado of '99 archive
