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If people drove through town on that one street looking for something, whether they found that something depended on what they were looking for. Most of the damage was centered on the back part of the fire department building, but some other buildings were affected, too. Trees and electric poles had been toppled, but most of the trees had been sawed up already and utility workers strove to restore power. Electricity in town had been off since the storm moved through Tuesday morning.

Yet, Thomas said, people still drove to grocery stores and fast food stores in hopes they were open.

Thomas sat on the back of a firetruck. He was there with several other fire department volunteers who shared stories of Tuesday morning as they waited for an insurance adjuster. Afterward they could begin cleaning up the back part of the building that had sustained the most damage, and they could begin cleaning the alley.

The alley behind the department was cluttered with concrete blocks, power lines and a transformer or two. Yellow tape surrounded the area to keep visitors out.

Thomas said he hadn�����Ƶ�t seen a storm like that in Proctorville in about 25 years. One memory he had from it was how it had taken down a three-deck billboard. But this one was different, he said.

�����Ƶ�It�����Ƶ�s unusual to me the way it hit. It hit right here and nowhere else,�����Ƶ� Thomas said.

A fast food place next door had some damage. And beside the fire department, a blue car was pinned in place by a power pole that had broken near the base and had fallen onto the car at the driver�����Ƶ�s door. Thomas and others said the car was owned by a woman who works at the restaurant next to the department.

Along with the localized intensity of the storm, an amazing thing was that no one was injured, Thomas said.

Up in Rome Township, part of the roof of Fairland West Elementary was blown off by the wind, exposing some classrooms on the second floor. Because the school is away from the main roads, there weren�����Ƶ�t nearly as many people passing by to see what they could see.

In a few months damage will be repaired, but memories will remain. It won�����Ƶ�t live on as one of the Ohio Valley�����Ƶ�s great all-time storms, like the derecho of about a dozen years ago, but it could well be a local legend that people discuss when the weather forecast predicts strong winds.