I was playing tennis at Schroeder Tennis Center in Tipp City a little after 6:00pm on Wednesday when the cell phones of all the tennis players cackled simultaneously with the weather warning.
Everyone left the courts (the building houses five courts in a steel frame covered with tin sheets) when this was followed by the loud tornado sirens. Stepping outside the club, you could see the low cloud formations near the outside courts, and ultimately the tornado funnel that touched down (see images below).
Most of the players stayed inside the lobby of the tennis club waiting for the weather to settle down. We later discovered that a funnel cloud touched down on top of the nearby Meijer Distribution Center. The photo below shows the resulting damage at the distribution center in Tipp City near I-75.
In the snapshot of the map below, you can see the proximity of the Mejier Distribution Center to the Schroeder Tennis Center. We were huddling less than 1 mile south of the tornado funnel that touched-down and destroyed the warehouse.
