Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Tennessee gets Tarpon squad cars

Tarpons Springs police deliver the cruisers and other assistance to the town's devastated Police Department.

By TERRI BRYCE REEVES
Published April 19, 2006

TARPON SPRINGS - When a deadly F-3 tornado sped through western Tennessee on the night of Sunday, April 2, the Bradford Police Department was devastated.

Literally.

"All that was left was a concrete slab," said Tarpon Springs police Capt. Jeff Young, who recently saw the ruin first-hand.

An F-3 tornado is a twister with wind speeds between 158 to 206 mph.

In addition to losing its headquarters, the Bradford department also lost four of six patrol cars and most of its equipment.

Young and three other members of Tarpon Springs police - Sgt. Al MacKenzie and officers Ken Knoop and John Ulrich - visited the small rural town, population of about 1,500, last week.

Their mission?

To deliver three surplus police cars, uniforms and body armor to a city in need.

"It felt really good to help," Young said. "We could easily find ourselves in the same situation and would be looking to others for assistance."

Young was unsure of the value of the donated police cruisers, 19 bulletproof vests and dozens of extra uniforms. The vehicles, with more than 100,000 miles each, had been headed to auction, and the armor had been retired, he said. Karl Flammer Ford of Tarpon Springs donated maintenance service for the cars before the trip.

"It's a tremendous help," said Bradford police Chief Euhommie Bond. "We didn't have anything left."

The twister swept away the 4,000-square-foot police station and set another house on its concrete slab, Bond said. That house has since been removed.

Trees, buildings and other debris smashed four of the department's squad cars.

That night, an officer on duty was heading north on a highway at the same time the cyclone came barreling through the town. It picked up his car, spun it around and carried it across a median and into a tree-lined ditch.

Thenit pointed the car into the southbound lane, Bond said.

That officer was not injured, though the unmarked car he was driving was crumpled.

"We were the worst hit of all the towns," Bond said.

The town lost six residents and at least 27 were reported dead throughout the nation's midsection. None of the 15-member Bradford police force was killed. The Police Department is currently operating out of a neighborhood senior center.

The donated cars came fully equipped; the only thing necessary was to remove the Tarpon Springs police logo.

But Bond said that wouldn't happen for a while.

"We're going to keep those on for a few weeks and let the residents know that Tarpon Springs came through," he said.

[Last modified April 19, 2006, 01:58:13]