STATE COLLEGE – The National Weather Service in State College confirmed an EF-1 tornado struck Lancaster County on September 1st. At 7:44 p.m. that day, a tornado, with maximum wind speeds of 90 mph, touched down in Salisbury Township, northwest of the Mount Vernon Road and Old Philadelphia Pike intersection with a width of 100 yards. It traveled south as it ripped off the roof of a barn and threw sections through the Old Road Mennonite Church graveyard before crossing Old Philadelphia Pike and paralleling Mount Vernon Road. It ripped a roof off another barn and snapped many larger limbs from a tree in the neighboring pasture. Continuing south it took some sections of roof and loose items from three farm outbuildings and ejected them throughout the fields. As it continued along Mount Vernon Road, some trees were hit and uprooted and large branches snapped. Farther south, a barn sustained minor roof damage before a one room school house was impacted with its whole roof torn off. At the intersection of Buena Vista and Mount Vernon Roads, another tree was uprooted and a telephone pole was bent. It continued south to the east of Mount Vernon Road where it crossed Pequea Creek, snapping many large branches and uprooting a few more trees. Past the creek, another clump of trees saw branches snapped before the tornado dissipated in a field.
