By Mark Mathis Messenger-Inquirer Leroy John had been through a tropical storm or two when he was growing up in Trinidad. But what the Kentucky Wesleyan College basketball player experienced on the small Caribbean island off the coast of Venezuela was nothing like what he saw outside the door of his Stadium Hall room late Monday afternoon.
Tornados rip houses up.
I'm not accustomed to that. That didn't happen in Trinidad. We had tropical storms, but I've never been through a tornado. The tornado had sustained winds of 180 mph, according to the National Weather Service. The No. 5 Panthers were supposed to play Lees McRae College on Monday at the Sportscenter, but that facility was converted into a tornado relief shelter.