SUMMERDALE, Ala. — It looked like a rainy day last Thursday, May 15, along Alabama’s gulf coast. The Metzlers, Elizabeth and Bob were watching TV behind the flea market on Highway 59.

“It was raining, and we were trying to get a TV news report (on the storm) said Elizabeth. “All of a sudden, our mobile home started bouncing up and down. The door blew shut. The next thing we knew, parts of stuff from the next yard started blowing away.”

Elsewhere in the complex, Punkin Norris of Elberta was finishing up in her hair salon with a customer as the wind started to blow.

“I could see a funnel cloud, and I wanted to take a picture (with her cell phone camera) but the wind came up really bad, and then you couldn’t see nothing.”

Strong winds forced Norris back behind the cinderblock walls of her shop. She and her customer huddled behind the counter, “for maybe two minutes. It was over real fast.”

When it was over, Norris went out to inspect. The power was out. She says her customer decided he’d had enough excitement for one day and drove off. Norris says his car had extensive body damage and was “totaled.” She could see portions of the complex’s roof around her, and something had taken out a support for the overhang of the roof near her door.

Norris’ silver year-old-to-her ‘04 Civic had deep dents on the roof and the passenger’s side. Amazingly, the glass was intact, and a brand-new bike, a birthday present for Norris’ son, Kamrin, appeared to be just fine. Norris says she did not have insurance coverage for storms on the vehicle.

Norris called her mother, Kimberly Black. The Foley resident works in Spanish Fort.

“When she called she said, “Mamma, a tornado came through, the roof blowed off and my car’s got holes.” It didn’t take me long to get here.”

A walk around the complex showed a metal roof had come off some of the buildings.

“We had just brought the clothes into the store,” said Butch Brill, executive director of “Helping Hearts of Hemophilia Upscale Resale Outfit.” The store had a neat hole punched through the roof.

“This has set our opening back, lots of stuff got wet.” said Brill, who added that all the items that got wet would have to be sent out to be cleaned.

Still, Brill could look on the bright side.

“I’m just glad nobody got killed,” said Brill.

While both the Metzlers and Norris think they’ve experienced a tornado, a spokesman for the National Weather Service, John Purdy, says he damage was probably caused by “straight-line winds.”

According to a National Weather Service Web site for storm spotters, a straight line wind is, “Generally, any wind that is not associated with rotation, used mainly to differentiate them from tornadic winds.”

According to Purdy, “We estimated the winds to be in excess of 60 m.p.h. There was a bow echo associated with it on the radar, and we know trees, and power lines were down in Fairhope.”

Riviera Utilities workers swarmed around two power poles in the complex, and according to Brill, one of the transformers on the poles was “blown across 59.”

For the Metzlers, the fun was just beginning. Along with Jim Hittaker, they cleared branches and debris away from a neighbor’s car. Amazingly, that car did not appear to suffer any damage.

“My dogs, Pugsley and Pup, both Chinese Pugs nearly had a heart attack,” said Hittaker, who lives in another travel trailer near the Metzlers.

“As far as we know, everyone is OK,” said Elizabeth.

That includes a tortoiseshell cat who has been living around the trailers and flea market. She gave birth just hours before the storm inside a plastic tub near the Metzler’s home. The tub filled rapidly with rainwater.

“I could hear her crying,” said Elizabeth, who went to investigate. “She was trying to pull the babies out of the tub.”

Elizabeth brought the cat and kittens to her trailer, where the new mother spent time licking her brood dry and feeding them.

“I don’t know what I am going to do with them, Elizabeth said.