Tornado sends part of Park Layne Sunoco sign to neighboring county

Part of a sign that was ripped away by Wednesday’s tornado from the Sunoco gas station in Park Layne was found today by a homeowner in Troy.

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A jagged piece of the sign from a gas station pump at 2131 S Dayton-Lakeview Road was found today lying in the backyard of a home in the 1200 block of Ridgewood Drive in Troy, WHIO’s Steve Baker has confirmed.

That’s an estimated 13.4 miles of straight line distance, according to Google maps.

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The Troy homeowner who found it, Jeff Welbaum, said the blue side of the sign was lying face down and he thought initially it was a piece of siding from his home. When he turned it over and saw it was a Sunoco sign, Welbaum said he immediately thought of the tornado that ripped through the New Carlisle area on Wednesday.

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The Sunoco owner, Dave Closey, is working to clean up the damage the tornado caused at his business. He said the piece of sign that apparently landed in Troy came from one of his gas pumps.

An EF-1 tornado touched down on the western part of the Park Layne community with sustained winds of 100 mph and traveled approximately four miles into Miami County, according to the National Weather Service in Wilmington.

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