MICHELLE WILLARD, Post Staff Writer
Posted: Sunday, April 19, 2009 6:13 am

John Duffer of Lascassas isn't sure if his house weathered the storm. The 100-year-old house is twisted on its foundation now and leans slightly from the force of the winds. TMP/Michelle Willard

The Good Friday Tornado ripped a 23-mile path through Rutherford County last week, starting in a backyard in Eagleville and ending in a field in Lascassas.

The tornado has been rated an EF-4 with maximum sustained winds of 170 mph. The National Weather Service also has evidence it was a multi-vortex tornado, which is a large twister with smaller tornados spawning off of it.

Robert “Andy” Soapes had no idea the killer tornado formed right across the street from his home in Eagleville.

“I didn’t know it was so close,” he said. He saw the storm cloud and the sky grow dark in front of his house.

“I was in back of the house and it was pretty,” he said.

But directly across North Main Street (State Route 41A), the tornado had touched down in his neighbor’s backyard, breaking limbs and uprooting trees, but leaving the home untouched.

The Good Friday Tornado raced across the backcountry in Eagleville, bringing destruction with it.

On Rocky Glade Road, it tore apart old-growth trees, ripped the roofs off barns and flattened others completely.

Over the next 36 minutes, the tornado grew to a half-mile wide and tore a path of destruction through northern Murfreesboro before it reached Lascassas 23 miles away to dissipate in a field off Lofton Road. But before the end, the twister hit one last neighborhood on Lascassas Pike, where John Duffer lives. Duffer was at work Good Friday, when the tornado struck his home.

The light blue, wooden home was originally built more than 100 years ago and served as Dr. J.C. Kelton’s office, owner Barbara Templeton said. Templeton rents the home now, and Duffer moved in Jan. 1.

The tornado pushed the home off its foundation. Now it leans slightly, and the doors won’t shut properly. The insurance company doesn’t know if it can be salvaged, Duffer said.

The home was saved from more significant damage by a maple tree in the front yard, he said.

“I had a tree in the front yard and I don’t even know where it came from,” he said, adding it stopped two feet from the house thanks to the old maple out front.

The trees were piled up in his yard so high you couldn’t even see the two-story building from the road, he said.

Duffer wasn’t at home when the twister hit, but his dogs were.

Housed in a pen behind the home, one dog, a Pyrenees-collie mix named Dylan, took refuge in his doghouse. The tornado picked up the doghouse and flung it 30 feet with Dylan inside.

“He took it the hardest,” Duffer said, adding his other dog, a Labrador-heeler mix named Iris ran for safety. Dylan was in such severe shock after the storm he didn’t move until Saturday night.

“Anytime the wind kicks up, he panics,” Duffer said, adding Dylan will get low to the ground and start shaking when he hears wind.

Even though his dogs took the brunt of the storm and his house may no longer be habitable, Duffer said he is still thankful to all the people who have helped him with the cleanup.

He would especially like to thank the men who stopped and used their chainsaws to clear the trees from his yard and the family from Woodbury who gave him food.

“None of them would give me their names or take any money from me,” Duffer said. “If nothing else, I’d like to thank them.”

Michelle Willard can be contacted at 615-869-0816 or mwillard@murfreesboropost.com.