TORNADOES TOUCH DOWN NEAR FINLEY

FINLEY, Tenn. -- A tornado touched down in a farm field in this rural northwestern Tennessee community Wednesday afternoon, just a few hundred yards from where a crop duster crashed his plane and died last week.

But while at least one other twister was sighted in the vicinity, both tornadoes dissipated before they could do any serious damage.

No injuries and only minor property damage were reported.

"There were two tornadoes reported," said Kendra Ward, spokeswoman for the police department at Dyersburg, Tenn. "Only one touched down. There were a few minor things, like signs being blown down, but there were no reports of major structural damage, and no injuries."

The first funnel cloud was sighted just after 1 p.m. It approached from the southwest at a speed of about 10 miles an hour, the National Weather Service reported.

As the ominous-looking storm moved closer to Finley, a second funnel cloud appeared on the southwestern horizon.

A burst of quarter-sized hail pelted the area immediately before the first funnel cloud touched down. Law enforcement officers from throughout Dyer County converged on Finley, warning residents and passers-by to take immediate cover.

The twister touched down in a large farm field a half-mile south of Highway 104 West, just east of the Obion River and north of the Forked Deer River, at about 1:25 p.m. It dissipated less than two minutes later, less than a half mile south of town.

The second funnel cloud disappeared soon thereafter.

Thunderstorm damage

A thunderstorm that moved through the area did more damage.

A 20-foot-tall sign in front of Burger King, at Lake Road and the U.S. 51 Bypass in Dyersburg was blown over. Several tree limbs were also reported down.

Jimmy Williamson, manager of the Dyersburg Electric System, reported little trouble.

"We didn't have much damage," he said, explaining that a fuse had blown out at Pate and Williams streets and a circuit breaker had blown out near Dyersburg Fabrics.

"Both were caused by lightning," he said, "and we had some traffic signals affected by lightning. We reset them and have them back working properly. We sure dodged a bullet."

Finley fire chief Danny Pritchett watched the tornadoes from the airstrip in Finley.

"We didn't have any damage at all," Pritchett said. "We stood at the airstrip and watched it. It stayed in a field south of Finley."