News from September 28, 2006 issue

Amish maps hot download
There is a stark contrast between the Amish way of life and the means by which people are finding them.
Their simple lifestyles void of most modern conveniences is one of Crittenden County’s greatest treasures.
It’s a treasure that’s hardly hidden, however, as the Internet is linking the rest of the world to Amish attractions. Well over 100 Amish community maps are downloaded each week from the official Marion Tourism Web Site. It’s an interesting juxtaposition of the primitive Amish lifestyle – no electricity or motorized vehicles – and the modern electronic age.
As monitored by the Tourism Commission’s webmaster, Brian Wilkes, the Amish map was requested online an average of 97 times a week in August. That number spiked to 228 the first week in September and 245 the next week after a story about the Amish community appeared in Kentucky Living Magazine.

“From July 22 to Sept. 16, 1,273 copies of the map were downloaded from our site,” said Tourism Director Michele Edwards.
Furthermore, an average of 160 Crittenden County maps are downloaded each month from the Kentucky Western Waterland’s Web Site. Thanks to the Internet, somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 maps a month are being accessed online.
“If somebody is taking the time to print the map on their own paper, with their own ink, they’re probably coming here,” Edwards said.
She said the use of the Internet is a valuable tool to spread the word about Crittenden County’s hidden treasures, noting that Wilkes is also designing an online map to spotlight antique shops between Hazel and Marion.
Despite the demand for online directions, the more traditional paper versions of the Crittenden backroads map must be maintained, Edwards said. That was proved during the recent Kentucky State Fair.
Crittenden County was the only county at the Kentucky Western Waterlands booth at the state fair to give away all of its brochures. Edwards said 2,000 were sent to the state fair, and they were all gone at the end of the 10-day event.
About 20,000 Crittenden County maps – which depict city and county shops and Amish stores – are distributed to dozens of businesses and tourist information centers throughout the region.

Storms damage area homes
Aaron Fritts and his wife Lydia were happy they weren’t home Friday afternoon when an apparent tornado touched down in the Sheridan area.
The Fritts had recently pulled a new double-wide mobile home next to their old single wide and had been in the process of moving their personal items into the new place. When the tornado came through, it picked up their old trailer and flipped it into Tom Hill Road which runs in front of their place.
Aaron said he was at work and his wife was staying with family. Their furniture was in the old mobile home and was scattered along the road and in the front yard.
“I’m just glad it wasn’t any worse,” Lydia Fritts said.
The couple has been married about two years and was upgrading their home. The electricity hadn’t even been connected to the new place yet.
“I’ve got a lot of cleaning up to do,” said Aaron Fritts, as he started up his chain saw and went back to clearing away large limbs from trees destroyed in his front yard.
Fortunately, his new home was not damaged by the high winds.
“It had one small crack in the vinyl siding,” he said. “That’s all.”
Acres and acres of timber were destroyed along Hurricane Church Road, Irma-White Road and in and around Sheridan when the storm hit about 5 p.m.
Shari Brewer had some damage at her home in Sheridan. She lost several trees and an outbuilding was badly damage. The siding on her house had holes in it from flying debris.
Brewer and her sister and brother-in-law had taken refuge in her basement. Her father Wade Buntin who rode out the storm up the highway at Deer Creek Church said he thought it going to be like the disaster of 1993 all over again. It was 13 years ago when Tolu and Sheridan was hit by a major storm. Buntin said his place was damaged back then, too.
Power companies, county road crews, the rescue squad and volunteer fire departments were out late into the night Friday cutting trees off power lines and opening roads where large trees had blocked passage.
Judge-Executive Fred Brown said county crews were out until about 2 a.m., after the storm. He said dozens of trees have fallen across Hurricane Church, Deer Creek Church, Tom Hill and Irma-White roads. It took several hours for county workers and volunteers to cut their way through those areas. A bridge on Turkey Knob Road suffered some flash flood damage, but crews were supposed to have that repaired Monday.
“I looked out right after the storm and we had nearly 60 people in the front yard helping clean up the mess,” Shari Brewer said. “They had all of the trees cut up and cleared out before dark.
“I’m grateful to live in a place where neighbors come out and help like that,” she said.
Near the Ohio River in Crittenden County a tree fell on the home of John and Susana Henry in the Hebron community. It badly damaged their home. West of there in Livingston County, there was major damage along River Road near Bayou and Birdsville.
Statewide, storm cells that moved through Friday caused 10 deaths, one in Murray. Most were related to flash flooding.

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