TV report on SJ twister not today's news

Thanks to what is assumed to be a computer virus that somehow activated 18-month-old emails, Spokane television station KREM reported a pair of twisters appeared in the sky west of St. John Monday.

Ken Gehring, whose photograph of two tornadoes in the western sky was used in the TV station’s news broadcast, said he sent the station the tornado picture shortly after he saw them, a year and a half ago.

Gehring received an email from the KREM news department Monday thanking him for the picture, which was also posted on the TV station’s Facebook site.

“I thought it was a hoax,” said Gehring, bus mechanic for the St. John school district.

Gehring said he took the picture with his Blackberry phone, which he got rid of more than a year ago.

Gehring believes the Monday’s tornado report was the result of an email which was somehow transmitted Monday after he sent it off 18 months ago. He added he also received a confirmation email from a vendor with whom he had placed an order in February of 2011. That leads him to believe a computer virus somehow activated his email account and the messages finally reached their intended destinations.

The news report that aired on television reportedly included an interview with a youngster in Webb’s Empire Foods.

Marilyn Webb said she was surprised to hear of the funnel clouds when reporters entered the store.

“I could have looked out my window and seen it. But I didn’t see anything,” she said.

The National Weather Service reported rain and wind gusts of up to 31 miles per hour Monday, but no tornadoes.