Mary Reinert, 71, heard a roar and jumped into a clothes closet in her brick home at 101 Highland St. - a split-second decision that may have saved her life.

"I was in my recliner watching TV when the storm came," she said. "I went into the closet. I just knew to do that."

Even so, she held onto the doorknob with all of her might as the tornado's force pulled against her.

The winds lifted the roof off of her house, pushed walls askew and sent her belongings flying through the neighborhood.

The small section of roof over the closet stayed intact, keeping her safe and dry, she said.

"It took less than 10 minutes. That's all it took," Reinert said. "It's just a miracle. That's all I can say."

No signs of a storm

Ruth Wardlow, 84, was sitting at her kitchen table just before 8 p.m. Wednesday, enjoying a cup of coffee.

"It was nice and calm. I had no idea anything was about to happen," Wardlow said Thursday while checking the cleanup of debris from her yard. "As far as I was concerned, I hadn't seen any signs of a storm. It looked like it might rain, but you see dark clouds all the time in this country."

In an instant, she said, her windows shattered, tree limbs were launched and part of her roof ripped away, opening a hole to the sky.

"I live on Social Security, and I've dropped all my insurance. I couldn't afford it," she said. "I can't worry about it now."

'We can rebuild'

As Gov. Bill Ritter toured the storm-battered town on Thursday, he stopped to shake hands with Jerry Jones, 71, whose house on North Main Street was a block east of most of the devastation.

"I was watching Fox news out of Denver, and they said there were going to be thunderstorms in Prowers County," Jones told the governor. "They said the storms would be over by 8 o'clock, and it was five minutes to eight when it hit. I was headed to the basement, but I couldn't get there. I just got to the utility room."

Still, Jones said, "We're lucky. We've got our lives. We can rebuild."

Racing to parents' house

Yvonne Carlson, 32, of Westminster, her husband and her sister raced through the night to reach Holly after seeing on TV that a tornado had struck the town where her parents live.

In one report, Carlson saw

Ralph Plummer, pastor of the church in Holly, where she grew up, and that set her on edge.

"The thing he said that grabbed me was that the park looked like a war zone, and that park is right across the street from my parents' home," she said.

"You know you're home when you see the big John Deere sign on the west edge of town," said Carlson's sister, Monica Folsom, 26, of Lakewood. "We were looking for it but it was so dark we drove right by it without realizing it."

After arriving at their parents' house, however, the trio was not able to roust Warren and Elizabeth Folsom, who, it turned out, were asleep.

When they saw their parents' spaniel, Rocky, safe in the backyard, they assumed their mother and father were with friends or at a shelter. Yvonne Carlson finally found her father getting coffee at J.R.'s Country Store early Thursday.

Impressive reaction

Rev. Dave Moorman, pastor of the United Methodist churches in Holly and in two other small rural communities nearby, was pleased with the town's reaction.

"What impresses me is how quickly people are pitching in to get done what needs to be done right now," Moorman said.

• Among those pitching in: The Prowers County Public Health Department, giving more than 50 tetanus shots to emergency workers clearing debris in Holly.

A look at Holly

• History: Incorporated in 1903, the town was named after rancher Hiram S. Holly. Holly Sugar Co. was started in the town with the construction of the company's first sugar beet factory in 1905. Its most famous resident is former Gov. Roy Romer, whose family moved to Holly when he was 6 months old. The town was forced to rebuild in 1965 after a 100-year-flood decimated the Lower Arkansas Valley

• Festivals: It holds the annual Holly Bluegrass Festival every June during Holly Days, in remembrance of the 1965 flood. The town holds a fair every fall.

• Other tornadoes: Holly is considered slightly above average in Colorado for tornado activity.

June 24, 1968: A tornado hit 1.1 miles from the city center, injuring one person and causing up to $50,000 in damages.

May 29, 2001: A twister touched down 36 miles from the city center.

OTHER FACTS:

• Elevation: 3,387 feet

• Size: 0.8 square miles

• Nearest large town: Pueblo, 172 miles away

• Population: 997, down from 1,048 in 2000.

DEMOGRAPHICS

Ethnicity

• White: 63 percent

• Hispanic: 36 percent

• Other groups: 1 percent

• Median age: 34 years.

• Foreign-born residents: 15.4 percent

• Native Coloradans: 50.1 percent

Households: 369

• Married-couple family: 54.5 percent

• Individuals living alone: 27.9 percent

• Homeowners: 67.2 percent

• Renters: 32.8 percent

Education

• High school graduates: 72.1 percent

• College graduates: 15.1 percent

Top occupations

• Agriculture, forestry and mining: 22.5 percent

• Education, health and social services: 20.5 percent

• Retail: 11.4 percent

• Manufacturing: 10.1 percent

• Walk to work: 9.2 percent of workers

• Median household income: $24,917

• Poverty rate: 27.9 percent

• Median housing values: $48,100

• edian monthly rent: $296

Colorado twisters

LIMON TORNADO, June 6, 1990

• Injuries: 14 people

• Damage:117 homes and 23 businesses destroyed. Fire and police departments, town hall and the post office damaged. Phone service lost for entire town.

• Property damage: $25 million.

Tornado spawned by an exceptionally powerful "supercell" thunderstorm that created winds up to 200 mph.

HOLLY TORNADO, March 28, 2007

• Fatalities and injuries: One person dead, at least seven injured.

• Property damage: Five homes destroyed, 50 to 60 damaged, dozens of cattle injured or killed.

COLORADO TORNADOES

1990-Oct. 31, 2006

• Number: 825

• Fatalities and injuries: 48 injuries, no deaths. The last tornado in Colorado to kill a person was a June 27, 1960, twister that killed two people in Sedgwick County.

• Property damage: $59 million (including more than $6 million in crop damage).Source: National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration, State Department Of Local Affairs And Rocky Mountain News Archives.

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