Wright, Wyo. – A tornado struck a mobile home park with little warning Friday, killing two people and injuring about a dozen others, authorities said. Three people remained missing early today.
The twister touched down just before 5 p.m. Friday in the coal-mining town of about 1,400 people and about 40 miles south of Gillette, said Campbell County Sheriff Bill Pownall.
“The warning was going off just as it hit from what I understand,” Pownall said. “They didn’t have a lot of time to seek shelter.” Jeff Rech, assistant chief of the Campbell County Fire Department, said residents had about five minutes warning of the approaching storm and were alerted by a siren system.
“It was one of those freak deals,” he said.
Some 30 to 40 homes in the Cottonwood Mobile Home Park on the northwest side of town were either damaged or destroyed, and a nearby elementary school also was damaged, Pownall said.
One person was found dead at the scene, while a second died at Campbell County Memorial Hospital in Gillette, he said.
Dianna Riley, hospital nursing supervisor, confirmed that an elderly man had died there.
Two others were admitted in fair condition, one with a back injury, and five others were treated and released, she said.
“I talked to one couple and they can remember flying through the air and screaming at each other,” Riley said. “And then they woke up. They weren’t admitted. They were treated and went home with friends.” Rech said about 50 people were expected to spend the night Friday at a shelter set up at the local high school. Many residents affected had found friends to stay with, he said.
The town is “pretty devastated, in the area that it hit,” Rech said.
Rescue personnel from two coal mines in the area were helping firefighters and police search the debris.
“There’s a lot of debris in the area,” Pownall said.
David King, Campbell County emergency management coordinator, said natural gas service had been shut off in the town as a precaution.
