FREAK TORNADO OUTSIDE FLAGSTAFF LINKED TO TEEN MUTANT ACTIVITY ARIZONA (September 6) - Miriam Santiago recalls in horror the rush of wind that ripped through her mobile home and sent her husband flying 400 feet into the air. "One minute we were watching the TV, and the next minute, Joe was being sucked out the front door." Moments after her husband took flight, the couple's doublewide trailer was wrenched apart by powerful winds that struck the side of their mobile home, burying Miriam in a pile of metal debris. Neighbors report seeing the 30-foot twister materialize in front of the couple's home at around noon and then dissolve almost immediately afterward. "It was strange," says fellow mobile home owner, Earl Potts. "Usually those things take out an entire block of trailers. This one just took out the one." Although a common phenomenon in the plains regions such as Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas, tornadoes have never been documented in Flagstaff, Arizona. Even less common are reports of large-scale tornadoes forming and dissipating within the span of 5 minutes. Witnesses to the phenomenon offer an alternative and troubling explanation for the freak occurrence. As is increasingly the case with unexplained phenomena across the country, locals cite mutant activity as the cause. According to the Santiagos' neighbors, the high-speed twister occurred directly after an altercation erupted between two neighborhood teens over a borrowed bike. The teen in question, one Ryan McDodd, purportedly "conjured" the twister after receiving a blow to the face by the Santiago's youngest son, Darrell. "Ryan's a freak," claims the shaken teen. "He's always showing off, doing weird stuff like making it rain only in one spot. Now he's blown up my house." According to one official at the Weather Service Bureau, tornadoes of that magnitude normally occur during the early stages of a thunderstorm, yet witnesses claim the sky was clear at the time of the incident. Previous unexplained meteorological activity has been reported in the area including hailstorms and flash floods during the dry, summer months. Most of the locals share the belief that these strange weather conditions are linked to McDodd. Since the incident was first reported, the McDodd family has relocated and was unavailable for comment. "I know that McDodd boy is behind all this," claims a tearful Miriam. "That kid was never a hundred percent normal." Miriam's husband, Joe, suffered minor injuries after landing on a nearby garbage heap. Miriam miraculously escaped injury, but she and her family now face the daunting task of rebuilding their home from the wheels up. BACK

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