Family recovering after EF-2 tornado flips trailer upside down

By Erika Stanish

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    PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A Fayette County family is recovering after an EF-2 tornado flipped over their home on Friday morning in Smithfield Township.

The tornado ripped through the area on Friday morning with winds hitting up to 120 miles per hour and snapped thousands of trees, leaving behind a path of destruction.

We’re now hearing from a family of seven who say they were inside their trailer sleeping when the power of that tornado flipped them upside down.

“Around 2:30 in the morning, I felt the house go airborne,” Caitlin Nicholson said.

From their beds to the ceiling in a matter of seconds, Nicholson recalls the moment a tornado hit their home, all while she, her husband, and their five children were sleeping.

“We were sound asleep and the next thing I know, it was just like this tremendous amount of pain, and all the screaming and crying,” Nicholson said.

She says she yelled for her husband and when he didn’t answer, she called her brother on the phone for help, who came running from next door and broke through their windows to rescue them.

Her children, ranging from five months to ten years old are all recovering, mostly with just cuts and bruises.

Her three-year-old had hand surgery after cutting a tendon.

Despite it all, she and her husband say they’re grateful to be alive.

The National Weather Service was on site in Fayette County on Sunday surveying more storm damage in Connellsville and in Dunbar.

They’re now researching whether the tornado that hit Smithfield Township caused the damage there as well or if it was separate occurrence.

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