Indications from the National Weather Service are that powerful straight line winds, not tornadoes, likely caused most of the damage in Whitley County Tuesday night — but those winds could have been moving at 90 miles per hour. Their destruction was enough for Judge-Executive Pat White Jr. to declare a state of emergency for the county.

Meteorologist Jim Maczko and Tabitha Brewer with the National Weather Service toured damage in western Whitley County on Thursday, where they found a large barn that had been demolished from the storm.

Tom Bryant was working on the barn’s roof with several others Tuesday when he saw dark clouds coming over the western ridge.

“(It was) just rolling clouds, they was black and white mixed, just rolling straight forward, just like truck wheels rolling, and we knew it was time to go,” he said.

Bryant made it to his truck and backed it up beside a bulldozer on the property along KY 478 in Whitley County.

“It raised the back of the truck up,” Bryant said, and he had to hold the brakes to prevent it from rolling even further. “It destroyed the doors on it, busted the windows out.”

Bryant was asked if the event was scary.

“Scary? I didn’t really think about it. You don’t have time to think about something being scary whenever it’s happening, but you sit down and think about it, and it was probably a good ride,” he said.

Based on Bryant’s description of a horizontal rather than vertical roll, Maczko believes the most severe damage in the county was caused by straight line winds and what is called a roll cloud.

“Basically it’s an indication of extremely intense winds...” he said of the roll cloud. “This particular location that we’re at is up on a hill compared to down there. In the atmosphere, typically the winds get stronger the higher you go up in the storm. So, the fact that we’re 1,500 feet higher than we were down there would explain the strength probably that resulted in that building being destroyed and a couple vehicles being moved.”

Boards, tin roofing and other debris from the barn were scattered across the road. One board could be seen jutting from a utility pole, stuck there by the force of the winds.

“The tin, it’s pretty scattered but again, it’s all in this general direction,” Maczko said. “We’re not seeing any debris this way or off to the sides, so right now I would say this is probably a straight line wind event...”

He said the force required to do such damage — including moving a 3.5 ton piece of farm equipment about 30 feet — would be “at least 70, if not closer to 90” mph.

Maczko said it’s important to document whether an actual tornado caused Tuesday’s damage because the data helps make predictions and issue warnings.

“We do research all the time to try to determine when tornadoes are going to form because those are going to be the most destructive and generally the most deadly (storms) and they also last the longest,” he said. “... Typically tornadoes cause the most damage, and learning the difference between what causes the straight winds and what causes the tornadoes is important to us.”

Less than a mile away from the first scene, winds destroyed the barn of William and Mildred Smith.

Linda Freeman had taken her mother Mildred to the doctor when the storm hit the family homestead.

“We got a phone call that said ‘have her (Mildred) close her eyes when she comes home,’” Freeman said. “This house is over 100 years old... and they moved in here about 1927 and they built this barn, so it’s 80-something years old, and it kind of broke her heart a little bit because she’s 90 now and she moved here when she was 7, I think.”

Not only winds, but flooding caused problems throughout the county.

Judge-Executive Pat White Jr. said he declared a state of emergency Thursday morning — the first step in possibly getting state or federal aid to the area.

“We’re trying to ask for help and state assistance, but we won’t know the results of those requests for some time,” he said.

Several roads in the county were entirely impassable, either due to mud slides or sections of the road that had washed away. White gave a list that included Deep Branch Road, Maiden Bend Road, Junior Roland Road, Dal Road, Adkins Lane, Myers Lane, Sally Watson Road and Seng Lane, which were all impassable. He said it was too early to give a cost estimate on the repairs.

White said he had not heard of any injuries directly related to the storms that pounded the area both Tuesday and Wednesday.

“The road crews really need to be recognized for the late nights they’ve been putting in,” White said. He also thanked the volunteer fire departments, law enforcement agencies and ambulance crews who helped clear trees from roadways and “maintain order and safety.”