A tornado that packed 105 mph winds destroyed mobile homes and downed trees slashed a path across Union County Friday night.

Union County Emergency Preparedness Director Stephen Jones said the hardest hit areas were on Proctor Road and T Bishop Road and at Scales Mobile Home Park off Sonoco Road. Jones said a representative from the National Weather Service viewed the damage with him Saturday and determined because of the pattern of damage to trees, the storm that struck was a tornado. Jones said the tornado was an EF1 — EF5 is the strongest. Jones said that in his 12 years on the job, only one other tornado that struck was stronger — an EF2 several years ago that damaged the Neal Shoals/Fairview Church Circle area and Jolly Drive and then dissipated.

Jones said it is estimated that the tornado Friday night was 350 yards wide and had a four-mile-long path. Union County was under a tornado watch when the tornado hit, but Jones said no prior notification was given.

The tornado is believed to have first touched down near 142 Proctor Road.

“There were a lot of trees down; a trampoline was in the top of a tree,” Jones said. “The neighbor’s shed was in the back yard. The privacy fence was blown down.”

The homeowner reported to Jones that when the tornado went over, the water went out of toilets in the house as if someone had flushed them. Jones said the water likely was drawn up through vents.”

The mobile home of Kaye Sanders nearby on 238 T Bishop Road was lifted off the foundation and dropped several yards away. The porch fell on top of a Jeep Cherokee and a Mitsubishi truck in the yard. Mrs. Sanders, two grandchildren who live with her, her son and his child were inside when the tornado hit.

Next door neighbor Lynn Fowler said the experience was terrifying.

“It had stopped raining and my husband was outside cooking on the grill,” she said. “It sounded like a bunch of jets coming over. My son grabbed my husband and pulled him in. Then he looked out and said the trailer (Mrs. Sanders’) was sideways. My son started out the door and saw them coming across the yard.”

Mrs. Fowler said it was a miracle no one was seriously injured.

Another mobile home behind the Sanders home also was damaged. A vacant mobile home across the road was flattened and a storage building overturned.

An awning was ripped off the Fowler home, trees were downed, the barn roof and a fence were damaged.

The tornado continued on its path uprooting and clipping trees. On the Sanders property on South Jonesville Highway, Jones said more than 60 trees were downed. A new utility trailer was thrown 100 feet into some trees.

Traveling down Sonoco Road, the tornado snapped power poles and damaged Milliken’s Cedar Hill plant.

At Scales Mobile Home Park, a trailer belonging to Lori Brasington was destroyed. The mobile home behind her’s occupied by her nephew, Mark, was heavily damaged. A large cedar tree was blown over on a car behind the mobile home of Mark’s mother, Leslie.

“It took the porch and steps off Mark’s, set it back in the yard and broke everything underneath it,” Leslie said. “It demolished (Lori’s). it is totaled and her stuff in it, too.”

Looking at items spilling out of Lori’s mobile home, Leslie retrieved an antique pitcher belonging to her’s and Lori’s mother. It wasn’t even nicked.

“I can’t believe it,” she said.

Lori said she didn’t want to talk about the experience.

“I prayed a lot and God protected me,” she said.

She said miraculously, all of her cats survived, including a mother cat and several small kittens.

Ann McDaniel, who lives behind Leslie, was at home with her husband, William, and two grandchildren — Kelsey Cipriano, 4, and Gabriel Cipriano, eight months. The large cedar tree fell between their two homes.

“I knew there was a lot of wind and I felt a thud when the tree went down,” she said. “I knew we had a really bad storm coming together but I didn’t want to say a lot in front of the little ones. We were in God’s hands, considering what happened with the trees and what happened to the neighbors.”