Suffolk Tornado Nearly One Year Later
March 16th, 2009 at 3:02 pm by Don Slater under Weather
When I was eleven, my house was hit by a tornado. The storm peeled back the front half of the roof, opening the house to the sky. It’s a vivid recollection to this day. And it comes “spilling out” to anyone who might ask.
But you don’t want to hear my story. We want to hear your story of last year’s tornado. It’s bottled up and waiting for someone to ask…and I’m asking!
Share your experience of last April’s tornado in the comments section.
Thanks and I hope all is well with getting your homes and your lives back together!
-Don
UPDATE: Thank you so much to those of you who have commented thus far. I will keep this posting open for further comments. And I will likely open a similar post near the anniversary date.
WAVY/Fox 43 Meteorologist
Hi Don! I was one of many teachers at Elephant’s Fork Elementary School tutoring after school when the tornado hit our school. Another teacher (Mrs. Breland) and I had our students in the computer lab. I kept telling her I had never heard it rain so hard before when the power blew out(we later found out the “rain” was debris hitting the roof). Another teacher ran in and told us to “GET OUT!!!!”. It was quite a task to try to stay calm so that the students wouldn’t panic. We were all wondering ourselves about our own families but at the time, the students we were with had to be our first concern. When the police finally let us out to look at the damage, we were devastated!!! All our trees were torn down, cars were in heaps, houses were in ruins, and the sound of sirens made it sound like a war zone. I think one of the scariest things was when we had to take the students down the road to catch the bus to the shelter. When they saw all the houses around us destroyed and severely damaged, I just can’t imagine what they were thinking!!!! Many of them lived in the surrounding areas and many of the houses you saw on the news were theirs. My best friend’s son was at a day care across the street and there was no way to find out if he was ok or not. We were lucky because most of us only lost our cars. We thanked God (yes, in a public school) we were all alive!!!!! Jan Baker, Special Education teacher (Now at Hillpoint Elementary School)
My wife and I were both at work when the Tornado hit our home. We had the hardest time getting home because of the traffic. We weren’t allowed in the neighborhood but our neighbor walked our dog out to us. We weren’t allowed in to see the house for 3 days. It was difficult not knowing how bad the damage was.
Luckily, we had great insurance and awesome neighbors to help with everything. I learned a lot about contractors and realized I should of researched them a little more. It was very interesting keeping an eye on the progress and QUALITY of repairs.
We also can’t thank United Way enough, since they came in and donated our entire deductible. The Website above has several pictures of our house and the neighborhood. One picture is a stick that pierced through the wall and is leaning on the gas line. This entire event could have been much worse.
In the end it is a blessing in disguise with all the home repairs and no serious injuries.
Myself and my husband were home when the storm hit. We were watching cable so had no notification that the tornado was coming our way. We didn’t have a clue what was going on as we are from the northeast part of the country. Next thing we knew, everything was flying around and their was tremendous wind. Once we opened our front door and headed outside we could not believe our eyes. The community was destroyed. Houses had landed on the golf course. Pieces of this and that were all over the place. Thank God we were ok and our neighbors were also spared. Its a miracle.
Here we are a year later almost and the insurance company is still fighting to release funds. We had to get an attorney involved because the insurance company was not cooperating with our needs.
To date, we still have windows and a roof that need replacing, along with a host of other items.
Your relationship with your partner changes forever and also that with your children. Unless you have experienced the event first hand you have no idea what a person has to endure.
We are in great need of wavy10 bringing this out into the public. Our communtiy really needs to have the news team come door to door and interview us all because the horror stories that are still taking place are too much to type.
Any help that you can provide would be appreciated. Alot of follow up is needed out in Hillpoint.
Thanks for taking time to read this and please feel free to contact me.
Sincerely,
Dee
I am an avid weather-watcher in North Suffolk just down the road from Driver. With my plans to pursue a meteorology major this fall, I set out to learn as much meteorology as I could in the last four years to prepare for college and have learned quite a bit. That day I was aware of the enhanced risk of severe storms as put out by the Storm Prediction Center. I pulled out my favorite tool, Bufkit, and saw the quite impressive parameters in store for the afternoon. Pulled up my GR radar software and watched as the storms fired before the main line. All the storms had rotation but the storm over Gates county caught my attention with its huge hook echo. I watched the velocity radar scans update as I saw the supercell thunderstorm that I only have seen looking at radar out in the Midwest. The radar clearly showed a large tornado and it was frightening to see the storm track path nearly over the house. Having my house plotted on the radar, I knew it would probably miss me a tad bit to the west. Went out on the back porch to see a wedge funnel churn, not on the ground. The funnel lifted all the way up and dropped a thin (compared to its earlier stage in downtown Suffolk) but intense tornado. Was only on the ground for a little bit, but it happened to drop down over Driver. I heard the loud hallow sound that I hear from stories on TV. Then came the mass amount of sirens. I am a skywarn spotter for the National Weather Service in Wakefield and I couldn’t even get through the lines; they were way too busy. I took a quick drive about an hour later to see the damage and ran into yellow police tape. Seeing the damage done in Driver first-hand and seeing the video from chopper 10, I was in complete shock. Amazing no one got hurt.
That was a terrible day my mom saw the tornado while she was at the meadowbooks cemetary. I never saw it but I heard it looked like a monster.
The tornado hit on April 28, my birthday. Yeah! I live in Driver but was blessed to not have any damage to my home. The radar reports were very scary, those colors on the radar that i’d never seen. My husband actually saw the tornado pass behind our house. This is definately a day that i will never forget. Toni Starling
I was in my car on my way home from work driving south on Godwin Blvd when I literally drove into the tornado. I work right on Godwin Blvd in the Godwin Commerce Park. I didn’t see the tornado until after I passed the Ruby Tuesday restaurant. In my panic I made a series of tactical errors in my attempt to get out of the path of the tornado(which I imagine many people did). Where I thought I was getting away, I was actually putting myself into position for it to hit me head on. I made it to a house of a friend in Burnett’s mill. I no sooner had my seatbelt off, when I heard a loud shrieking coming from my behind me. My car was rolled over, picked up and dropped back down about 50 yards away from the driveway. (i cleared two trees in the process which were left standing!). I landed on all four wheels and I was in the back seat. I was in a mini-van and able to stand up as the roof tented upward. I climbed out the driver’s side window as I was unable to open the door. Despite my experience, I walked away from the car with minor cuts and bruises. I am extremely grateful for the nurses at Suffolk Pediatrics for lending me a cell phone to call my husband. The nurses were tending to people with injuries, they wrapped my hand in towels to stop the bleeding and walked me and others to the hospital. It was amazing to see their calm responses to everyone else, even though they too had experienced the tornado. It was horrible day that will forever be etched in my mind. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about it. I can still clearly hear the sounds of the thunder, I can still hear the sounds of the hail/debris/rain hitting the car. I can still hear the sound of the tornado rushing toward me. I can still clearly see the swirling dirt, the debris flying through the air. I can still feel the vibration just before it hit my car. I can still taste the dirt as the tornado picked up my car and tossed me around. The last writer called it a monster. It certainly was and that is exactly how I describe it to people who have never seen one… a giant beast walking along, not really caring about anything in its path and what it is destroying. All in all, the City of Suffolk is extremely blessed. And not a day goes by that I don’t thank the Lord for His protection over everyone.
Hello Don,
My wife, Sandy, my mother-in-law, Libby, myself and our big black lab were home last April 28 when the tornado came through our home in Hillpoint Farms. The following is a what I refer to as “The Twist”.
Thanks.
Sandy and I were working from the house that day;
Sandy in the front bedroom, me in the middle one.
Just starting the week; wrapping up a MAS 90 sale; looking forward to some prospect visits later in the week.
Typical overcast Spring day, possiblity of rain later in the day; lazy, hazy Monday.
Libby Mills, my 87 year old mother-in-law, came up to the front bedrooms around mid-morning to let us know that there was some rough weather coming up from the Carolinas and might come our way later in the afternoon. We might want to turn the television on. Libby is legally blind but watches TV most of the day as best she can. She can see the blur of the “severe weather” scrolling and recognizes the “beep, beep, beep” weather alert.
Turned the television on but did not see anything to speak of; some tiny spot of nothing down in North Carolina. Left the TV on but put it on mute…………back to work…………need to wrap up the deal for April.
Ate lunch around 1 p.m.; no change in the weather; just high dark soft clouds, little to no rain and light winds.
Checked out the weather on TV again and a cell was coming up from North Carolina but it was very small and if it came our way was expected to be south/southwest from Suffolk. Tracking through Franklin and then Windsor…………;no mention of Suffolk ………..
Around 3 p.m. or so; walked outside a couple of time to check out the sky…..really no change other than the clouds were thicker and slightly darker. Nothing that appeared to be menacing coming from the south/southwest which was the direction we looked as we stood in the front of our house and looked across the street at our neighbors’ homes and beyond.
About 4 p.m. now; some school children getting home now, parents not home from work………..TV is picking up the urgency of the potential for a tornado but still no mention of Suffolk………. still Franklin and Windsor.
Standing in the front bedroom I see Troy across the street come out on his front porch talking on the cell phone.
2 quick lightning strikes close to us; Troy bolts inside; power flickers; we laugh at Troy and begin to shut down our computers. Odd, do not remember any thunder just the intense crack of lightning.
4:15 p.m. No real change in the weather, rolling dark clouds, wind has picked up a little, no rain, none. I look in a south/southwesterly direction and can only see the dark & light divide of a line of storms to the south/southwest as I look beyond my neighbors’ homes.
4:18 Libby has come up to the front of the house to ask if we knew what was going on………..she is afraid and she has been hearing the heightened alerts from the weathermen. I am standing in the front bedroom looking out the large window. 2 things happen simultaneously; I see the funnel cloud a few hundred yards away coming in our direction with large debris in the cloud and then I hear the roar of the wind as it lets us know what the weathermen could not; the tornado is here, NOW.
Sandy grabs her mom with me pushing them as we head towards the back of the house; towards an interior closet where all of us can take shelter along with our 135 lb. black lab, Sambo. Sandy is yelling at her mom to move faster as the roar of the wind continues to intensify around us. Sandy grabs Sambo who initally resists as he knows he must be in trouble for who knows what! He comes along as I know he can sense trouble.
I am immediately behind them hurry, hurry, hurry!!
We enter the interior closet and upon shutting the door the roar of the wind announces the arrival of the tornado. We can hear debris hitting the house, shingles being ripped off, Libby is screaming, crying………….
All of the windows in the house blow inwards, the door to the closet is pummeled with bricks, glass, whatever the wind wants.
The walls, ceiling and door begins to shake and rattle……huge, terrific sounds of banging, booming and crashing are occuring………we lower ourselves, hugging each other closer, waiting for the closet door to blow and/or the walls and ceiling to collapse. Just holding on, waiting, nothing else we can do.
Then it is gone……………………..silence.
I tell Sandy and Libby to remain in the closet until I can see what we have left and how we can get Libby out.
The closet door opens in so it is not blocked; I open the door and the neighborhood has changed.
Windows and walls are gone……………..and so is my neighbor’s home. I yell to Sandy that I have to go out and check on our neighbors. I cannot get out the front of the house as it is totally blocked with pieces of my house and all of my neighbors.
I roll out the back; my neighbor and her 2 small children are climbing out of what is left of their home after riding the tornado in a bathtub. Neighbors run to attend to them.
Neighbors are running to our section from everywhere wanting to attend to the injured and search for any that might be missing.
I make my way around to the front of my house; I am hearing screaming and yelling. It is Troy ….scared and alone in a house that I cannot believe is still standing. I yell to Troy to stay put as he is not injured and in need of someone to come get him without causing the structure to fall in on him.
I need to get to John across the way as I see him sitting on the ground slouched over with what is left of several homes surrounding him.
He looks up at me with blood running down his forehead and cheek and asks what happened……….tornado, tornado
It is raining now, hard……….I see a neighbor in what looks like a cut-up doll house if I could get a blanket for John…..she runs and immediately throws me several. I know John’s wife is out of town working so I ask him for her number. I am shocked he has the focus to tell me. I hold my phone to his ear as he is in severe pain and cannot raise his arms……….they talk (oh, God, please don’t let this be their final conversation)…he finishes and I talk to her; letting her know who I am and that we will be getting John to the hospital now……..emergency personnel begin to arrive on the scene….John is placed on a piece of someone’s house and is carried to a private vehicle that speeds off to Obici. Bye John, praying for you buddy.
My cell phone continues to ring and to ring…………………..are we hit, are we alright, what can we do, where do we go…………I hear from friends and neighbors that say I called them right after it hit……………I don’t remember, what did I say……….how is the rest of Suffolk? Call, call, call……….mobilize, our neighbors will need us, get ready, get ready…………Ed, Yo, Doc, Larry, help, help, help…………..on and on, I don’t remember, I don’t know, still reacting, not sure, what do we need? Prayer, a shoulder, a hand, Love………………..
Sandy, Sandy, Sandy where is your mom? Neighbors, friends, strangers have carried her to safety……….I am back to help wherever I can ………..a direct phone line in the house STILL works………everybody needs it to call loved ones and communicate I am well, I am alive, stop crying, I am fine, I am alive, God is good, God is good……
Neighbors who had been at work begin to arrive on the scene; we embrace in the middle of the street. I tell him where I saw his wife and children go……..gone, running, yelling; just to hold them…………………..safe!
Matt comes running down the street with a hard hat, safety vest and a shovel he found on the way……….where is his dog, Bear. Have I seen Bear? No, no sound, no Bear……..I have a shovel………I will dig him out! Praise the Lord that Matt, Leslie and Bayle were not at home………………their house is gone!
Out of nowhere appears a neighbor………I found a dog…….injured…could it be Bear….off they run.
Firemen, police, rescue………….neighbors………..searching, looking, wondering????????
How can there be no fatalities????? Homes flattened, moved, shifted; vehicles spun, flipped; flying debris. All spared?
Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!
Steady pour now…….soaking what possessions that are left……..photos of cherished moments, family and friends…………baby momentos, wedding albums, things of those gone from long ago……….rain.
All alone now………streets blocked, curfew set………..cannot get out yet, all vehicles destroyed, need to get Libby out……..Mike and Cindy are trying, trying, trying!
Take a breath, reflect, think, give thanks……………a lot to be thankful for….the list goes on and on……….some items been there a long time…………some just added today.
Sitting in the rain………….at peace with joy. Thankful for the quiet – work begins with the new day. Looking forward to it……………God is good!