No call at 2 a.m. is good. Rodney Leibring, DVM, received one of those calls on Nov. 6. Leibring, a Thoroughbred racetrack practitioner, was asked by the male caller if he was at Ellis Park yet. Leibring, confused because he wasn’t expected there until after 8 a.m., replied, “No why?” The man told Leibring that he needed to get there right away. A tornado had just hit the racetrack’s stables, and it didn’t look good.

Part of Ellis’s grandstands, the paddock area, and offices were destroyed by an F3 tornado. View more images here.

Dr. Rodney Leibring and several other veterinarians arrived at Ellis just after the tornado hit. Chad Mendell Photos

An F3 (the Fujita scale ranges from 0 to 6) tornado hit Ellis Park in Henderson, Ky., with winds of up to 200 miles per hour. A 400-yard-wide path of toppled trees and leveled buildings indicated the tornado’s path. The tornado traveled 41 miles, killed 22 Western Indiana residents, injured more than 100 people, and resulted in the death of three horses at Ellis Park