‘This was crazy': WA man caught up in eye of freak tornado
A Great Southern man who was caught in the eye of a freak tornado and thrown 30m into a fence on a Frankland River farm on Tuesday said he is grateful he's 'still standing up'.
Darcy Clode was putting up steel posts for fencing on the crop and sheep farm about 12.30pm when he saw the 'cockeyed bob' ripping up trees as it moved towards him.
The fencing contractor sheltered inside his ute with his dog, who was asleep in the back seat, until he felt the back end of the vehicle lifting up off the ground. Mr Clode's dog was sleeping the back seat of the ute when the tornado came through. Credit: Melissa Sheil
'I thought I better get out of there and make way so as I got out of my ute it picked up and I tried to scurry away a bit but by then it had knocked me into the ground,' he said.
'I could see the tractor and thought 'oh next thing the tractor's coming down on top of me' but before you know it, I was flat on the deck and thrown into the fence and it was all over.
'I couldn't really see much since there was a lot of dirt flying around, and it was sort of natural instinct to hit the ground, cover your head, protect yourself from major injuries but there wasn't really much I could do with that much force.
'You're sort of pushed against the fence and held there.' Mr Clode was taken to hospital and treated for leg wounds. Credit: Melissa Sheil
Mr Clode was taken to Albany Health Campus for treatment for a deep cut and scrapes on his leg, but it was his machinery that took the real beating.
The cabin roof of his HiLux work ute caved in after it flipped over with its attached trailer, and his tractor had its windows blown out and roof torn off.
Lasting about five minutes, the tornado began at the north-west corner of the farm and moved down to the south-east corner at what property owner Nathan Waterman believed to be speeds of about 250km/h.
'I think we've had these cockeyed bobs before in other areas, but, yeah, nothing like this, this was crazy,' he said. Mr Waterman said Mr Clode was completely covered in dirt and mud when he arrived. Credit: Melissa Sheil
'We just thought it was Armageddon when we got here, we couldn't believe what we were looking at. We didn't know what we were looking at, actually.'
He said his property suffered some 'extensive damage' with fences and trees torn out, but his crops and livestock fortunately got out relatively unscathed.
'The sheep haven't moved from the top of the paddock, I think they're as far away from the tornado as you could possibly get,' Mr Waterman said. Mr Clode said the extreme machinery damage is tough on a small business. Credit: Melissa Sheil
A Bureau of Meteorology spokesperson confirmed the event to be a tornado and said that WA has an average of five tornadoes during the cool season.
Mr Clode, who was back at work on Wednesday, said he's grateful to 'still be standing' but it's 'not something you'd want to endure every day'.
'Yeah, it wasn't on my bucket list of things to go through but it's a good one for the grandkids,' he said. The strong winds flipped the ute and a trailer. Credit: Nathan Waterman The roof of the ute caved in when it was flipped. Credit: Melissa Sheil
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