LICKING COUNTY, Ohio — Morckel Meadows, a small farm in Licking County, was devasted by a tornado during Thursday night's severe weather.
“It felt like an explosion. I’m looking out the window and everything is fine and then all of sudden the dogwood tree by our house splits in half,” said David Morckel, one of the owners of the farm.
Morckel said seeing and hearing the tornado Thursday night was devastating. The tornado took away his small farm that he and his wife had been growing for five years. They own a small business that delivers fresh produce in the summer once a week to customers in the Columbus area.
“Seeing everything in daylight, seeing how completely flat everything is, it felt like picking up trash one piece at a time,” said Morckel.
The damage is everywhere on the farm., from a camper being pushed on its side to a cooler destroyed.
“All of our greenhouses are completely leveled, our sheep were in their barn and the roof is completely gone,” said Morckel.
All of the sheep are safe, but they did lose a few chickens. Morckel said seeing what happened to his farm was unbelievable.
“It feels silly to see everything destroyed because we work unreasonably hard to do this. We take a lot of pride in the decisions we make and how we work,” said Morckel.
Mid-March is typically when the seeds are planted for the produce. But that won't happen for now. Morckel said they will take it one day at a time to get back to normal.
“It’s going to take a lot of perseverance and motivation to be able to get everything back up and feel like we aren’t vulnerable,” said Morckel.