News

Meigs Co. Couple Rebuilds After Tornado Two Years Ago

By:
Posted on:

< < Back to meigs-co

Sunday marks the two-year anniversary of tornadoes that tore through southeast Ohio.

Dozens of families in the region lost their homes the night of Sept. 16, 2010.

In Meigs County, 22 houses were destroyed.

"Well, what I remember most was the high winds blowing the front window out, blowing stuff through the roof, blowing the back wall out of the garage, blowing the roof off the garage, basically, tearing up about everything we had," Virgil Holsinger said.

Virgil says 165 mile-per-hour winds totaled their home in Reedsville.

It took two weeks to clean up the aftermath.

High school students and others pitched in.

"It just crumbled our bricks, you know, and all that" Geraldine Holsinger said, "and those kids went through there and just picked those up in no time, just worked and worked."

After the clean-up, the Holsingers decided to rebuild.

They moved in about a year ago, but Geraldine says it doesn't quite feel like home.

"You know, we lived 30-some years there, and it was home," she said. "You felt really secure there, but we'll eventually get to feeling like that here, I think."

Still, both say they're happy in the new home.

"I like it real well," Virgil said. "It's a lot better house than we had. Of course, it cost us a lot more money, but everything's new, you know."

They still find remnants of the tornado, like fragments of glass, in the yard.

But two years later, Virgil says they're about 99 percent back on track.