One minute on the Fourth of July. That's how long it took a neighborhood in Louisville's West End to be damaged by an EF-1 tornado that touched down without any warning.
Lashonda Arthur Petty, 47, and her family — her dad, 9-year-old daughter and boyfriend — were getting ready to host an Independence Day party for about 60 people. Before guests could arrive it got cloudy; the sky got dark and she could see through her door when the tornado touched down.
"It literally looks like something just picked up everything outside and everything down here was just, like in a cloud," she said. "It was in a, like, a spinning thing. It was bananas."
An EF-1 tornado, with winds up to 95 mph, hit the West End of Louisville around Woodland Avenue between Catapla Street and Cypress Street, according to the National Weather Service. Another preliminary survey found an EF-0 tornado, with winds up to 80 mph, touched ground in Harrison County, Indiana.
Petty, who is the mom of District 4 Councilman Jecorey Arthur, has lived in her home for 15 years. Both her "granny" and her "great granny" have also lived there.
Petty alerted her neighbors and relatives.
But, nobody alerted Petty.
Mayor Craig Greenberg said Friday afternoon after touring the damage that the sirens did not go off. He said the sirens are activated when the National Weather Service emits a warning, which did not happen.
"This tornado that touchdown yesterday came without any warning," Greenberg said. "It came without any warning to us, in the city. It came without any warning to the state. It came without any warning to the National Weather Service."
Greenberg was joined by city and state leaders including Gov. Andy Beshear, Rep. Morgan McGarvey and District 1 Councilwoman Tammy Hawkins.
No deaths have been reported and there are currently no people displaced, to Greenberg's knowledge.
'Nothing went off to let us know'
Petty lives between two schools.
The sirens are tested monthly.
"I've lived in this neighborhood my whole life," Petty said. "I've listened to those sirens my whole life. And then when we need them, they don't go off and that scared me."
She said the party was expected to go as planned. She saw it was going to rain between 10 a.m. and noon.
Once noon passed, they set the party on the deck. But then the tornado "came out of nowhere."
"I literally posted on Facebook in one minute our whole neighborhood was destroyed," Petty said.
She said everything from the party was ruined and the back yard of her house was filled with fallen trees.
The only sign of the party that didn't happen were balloons in the front of the house that read "Stars and Stripes."
Audrey Johnson Sr., 71, was on his way to Dayton, Ohio, to visit relatives when he got the call from Petty. He kept going because there was nothing they could do during the storm.
He has lived there for more than 40 years and has never seen damage as extensive as the one caused Thursday — including a felled tree in front of his house and on top of his son's car.
He said his son was getting out of the car as the tree was falling.
His car was one of two below a big tree that welcomed people to the 1300 block of Olive Street.
Johnson said his son stopped by to get food for a Fourth of July party. He got out of his car and then the tree started coming down.
"That was the fortunate part, that he was able to get out of harm's way," Arthur Sr. said. "But he saw it come down."
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