Close scrape for one man with Houston County tornado

Jim Cook and Greg Phillips


Published: October 8, 2008

Pablo Santamaria is a lucky guy.

Santamaria witnessed firsthand the power of a tornado Wednesday afternoon, and escaped the raging storm unharmed to tell of his experience.

Santamaria was travelling west on U.S. 84 around 1 p.m. when winds from a tornado that touched down in the Wicksburg area pushed his Ford Focus station wagon off the road into a ditch.

“I tried to slow down and get on the side, but the wind, like, drove me off the road, all the way here,” Santamaria said, calm but also discernibly rattled by the experience.

According to officials, the tornado Santamaria experienced was one of up to three that may have touched down in the Wicksburg area Wednesday afternoon between 1 and 1:15 p.m. No injuries were reported, but the area experienced property damage.

“At least one tornado struck in Houston County,” Houston County Emergency Management Agency Director Clark Matthews said. “Pretty much what we’ve been able to find out is mostly in the Wicksburg area around County Road 49 and Bay Springs Road, where there was good-sized barn leveled and large debris field.”

Matthews said a used car lot at the intersection of U.S. 84 and Judge Logue Road felt the effects of the weather, with several car windows being blown out by the winds. He said Ray Dean Farm Construction and Public Auction in Newton suffered some damage as well, and several trees were down throughout the county.

No injuries were reported from the weather in Houston County, and Geneva, Henry, Barbour and Pike counties reported no weather-related damage at all.