As Angela and John Christiana of Bush settled in for a meal of grilled barbeque shrimp, turkey and vegetables Tuesday night, thankful they dodged Hurricane Gustav, a twister on the horizon slashed through their horse farm.
"It happened so fast we didn't know what to think. We just started running," Angela Christiana said this morning, less than 12 hours after the tornado ravished part of her farm. 'There was this hissing sound, and all the air was sucked out of the barn. We just started running.'
 A sheriff's deputy combs through debris left when a tornado touched down in Bush. (Photo courtesy of St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office) |
The twisters, spawned from the pounding rains and whipping winds of Hurricane Gustav, caused no injuries, Sheriff's Office spokesman Capt. George Bonnett said.
In Abita Springs, a tornado shredded a warehouse off Louisiana Highway 36 in Abita Springs about 2:50 p.m. Tuesday, ripping bricks off the façade and sending a 16-foot van airborne, crashing into racks of home siding supplies, the leasee William "Billy" Deckwa said.
Deckwa, who rents the storage to store equipment for his home improvement business, was shocked.
"That shows the you the pressure these things have," he said this morning, a day after the National Weather Service confirmed the tornado.
The tornado's strong winds also ripped the warehouse's doors of its hinges and blew out windows, he said.
Deckwa however, was just glad nobody was hurt. An employee and her husband stayed in the warehouse during the tornado, he said.
"They didn't get a scratch on them," he said. "Thank God."
In Bush, Angela Christiana, who co-owns Southwest Horse Co. with her husband, was still reeling this morning from the tornado, which has yet to be confirmed by National Weather Service officials. The couple had invited eight friends and family members to stay with them in Bush 'to be safe' from the storm.
Turns out luck dealt them a bad hand.
Their farm at 80187 Watt's Thomas Road sustained significant damage. Two aluminum horse trailers, one 24 feet long, another 20 feet long, were flipped upside down. Two barns, 80 feet long and capable of holding at least 20 horses, "were completely reduced to rubble," Angela Christiana said. And a two-by-four crashed through their living room.
"We don't know where to start, where to begin to pick up the pieces," Angela Christiana said.
Thankfully, their home, built on top of the farm's main barn, was left unscathed, she said, still surprised the family escaped serious injury. As the tornado approached on the horizon, a friend yelled, "tornado, tornado."
"The barn started rattling and about 20 horses took off running toward the back of the pasture," Angela Christiana said.
None of their 50 horses were injured, she said.
Still, the ordeal has left them rattled. "We're still scared," she said. "We're still rattled."
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