My Grandfather's Story According to the Rocky Mountain News
5:35 p.m. Bob Henderson, 73, of Windsor was still in shock at his daughter’s Greeley home as he recounted how he survived the tornado that destroyed his home.
“My daughter’s SUV was parked out in the street and I decided to get it in to get away from the hailstones which were two to two and half inches in diameter,” said Henderson.
He parked the Ford Explorer in the garage, went into the house and found there was no power. He decided he wanted to shut the garage door.
“I went on down to the garage and just then it hit,” he said. “I turned to run for the door into the house (about five feet away) and it blew me literally to the front of the garage.
“ I got tight against the floor and it just piled things on top of me. It had blown in a lot of debris in front of the SUV and I was just trying to get down and under the car as much as I could. The way things were flying in there — there wasn’t much that I could do. It had blown in so much debris that I couldn’t get under (the SUV).”
Henderson said he put his arms and hands above his head to keep the debris from falling on him.
“I was trying to protect my head,” he said. “My main thought was how to keep from getting hit with something.”
Henderson estimated the tornado passed over the house in about a minute, maybe a minute and a half, before it continued on its path.
He dug himself out from the debris through a hole in the debris pile. The only injury he received were some cuts on his left hand.
“I’m going to admit, if I wasn’t scared, I was extremely upset at how long that was going to last,” he said.
Henderson’s house is missing much of its roof, with the most damage to the northeast part of the house.
“The garage is on a 15-20 degree tilt,” he said. “One living room window and the bathroom window are the only ones that are left (intact) but that’s not relevant when you think: the roof is gone.”
He said so much debris has piled into the garage that he couldn’t see the Ford Explorer, although he’s pretty sure its windows are all blown out.
“There’s all manner of stuff that I have absolutely no idea where it came from,” he said.
He and his wife are staying with daughter Holly Bucks in Greeley for the next few days.
“I don’t know if we can get back in tomorrow,” he said. “As soon as I can get back in, I”m going to rent a storage unit somewhere and move everything out of the house. There is no way to secure it.”
This was not the first house that he’s lost to a tornado. In 1962, when he was living 45 miles north of Cedar Falls, Iowa, a tornado went through his neighborhood as well.
“It didn’t destroy the house in so many words,” he said. “It shook it apart and it was not fit to live in any more.”
Henderson said he hasn’t decided whether to rebuild his home in Windsor, where he’s been living for eight years.
“It’s really too early to answer that question,” he said. “I’m not sure what’s going to take place at this time.”
4 months ago