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Bladen residents assess tornado damage
Apr 08, 2009 (The Fayetteville Observer - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
Apr. 8
MULTIMEDIA
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by Stephanie Bruce
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by Stephanie Bruce
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CLARKTON -- Tony Jacobs shook his head in disbelief when he saw the damage a tornado did to his childhood home Monday.
The tornado, packing winds of 115 mph, pushed the home 20 feet off its foundation.
When Jacobs got the call about his home, he thought maybe a few shingles would be missing.
"When I saw the house, I thought where in the world am I going to live now?" Jacobs said Tuesday as he stood in the yard of his home on Farmers Union Road. "But nature took its course. I feel bad about it. This is the first time I have seen something like this. I hope I won't see no more. But the most important thing about it is, no one got hurt. You can always get another house. It could have been worse."
The tornado ripped through his neighborhood about 10:40a.m. It destroyed his brother's small home and a welding shop nearby.
Jacobs carefully walked through the home Tuesday morning to salvage clothes and family mementos. Inside, the kitchen floor was covered with broken dishes and glasses. The walls in his bedroom were cracked, and the floor of another bedroom had buckled.
Jacobs, who shares the home with his sister, said they may tear it down and put up a mobile home. Unfortunately, the family does not have insurance to cover the expense.
"That is the bad part about it. We didn't have insurance," he said. "I don't know what we are going to do right now. Everybody wants to help out. We are not going to be homeless."
Winds up to 115 mph
The National Weather Service in Wilmington confirmed that an EF 2 tornado with winds up to 115 mph touched down about five miles southeast of Clarkton on Monday morning. The tornado touched down on Farmers Union Road off Porterville School Road. The width of the tornado was about 100 yards.
Significant damage was reported to four homes. A storage trailer, weighing more than 8,500 pounds, was blown about 40 feet, flipped upside down and rotated 180 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.
A storage building that had been turned into a home was destroyed.
One person suffered a cut, said Mitchell Byrd, director of the county's Emergency Services.
The Red Cross helped the Jacobs family find shelter. Three family members are staying at a motel in Elizabethtown, Byrd said.
"We have referred them to Social Services for assistance," Byrd said. "We have also contacted the North Carolina Baptist Men to see what they can do to provide assistance."
The county's Inspections Department was out Tuesday morning to assess the damage.
On March 27, a tornado passed through Bladen County, ripping the roof off a home on Twisted Hickory Road between Bladenboro and Dublin. That tornado also was an EF2 with winds up to 115 mph. It touched down at 9:08 p.m. and was on the ground for four minutes, according to the weather service.
"It is very unusual for us to have two tornadoes in such a short period of time," Byrd said. "It is important for individuals to take the time and invest in a weather radio. It is just as important as a smoke detector in the home. It can save your life."
Monday's tornado briefly weakened as it headed northeast. The tornado snapped tree tops and uprooted trees as it approached Chancey Road, according to the National Weather Service. Two homes suffered damaged to roofs and windows.
The tornado continued northeast across woods and farmland. It strengthened and crossed Baer Mill Drive, damaging two homes. The width of the damage path was about 60 yards on Baer Mill Drive.
Ed Shaw, who lives at Porterville School Road and Baer Mill Drive, saw the tornado touch down in a field. Shaw was shelling pecans in his kitchen when he heard a loud noise.
"I looked out the window and saw something in the field about 200 feet in the air," he said.
There were branches and debris swirling in the wind, Shaw recalled.
"It was fast and crazy," he said.
Shaw closed his kitchen door because a strong wind was coming inside, he said.
"When I looked up, I thought it was going to come towards me," Shaw said. "I thought maybe I should go get under the bed. When I looked up again, it was gone."
About 15 minutes later, he decided to check on his neighbors who live near the field.
"I used to be a trucker and you hear about tornadoes in Missouri," he said. "I wasn't expecting to see one here. Since the one in Riegelwood two years ago, it changed my mind about what could happen. You don't know what to expect."
Eight people were killed Nov. 16, 2006, when an F3 tornado struck a mobile home park in Riegelwood.
Robert Ward took photos of the damage to his mother's and stepfather's home. The front porch of Jack and Barbara Baerward's home was destroyed. The wind blew out the upstairs windows.
Debris from the neighbor's storage shed was scattered across the yard.
No one was home when the tornado struck.
"No words can describe what I saw when I turned the corner," Ward said. "It was very, very shocking. They have done so much and put everything into the house. They were almost done. They had just put the pool in. The house is falling down in the inside. Water was literally dripping from every light fixture on the second story. There is so much water damage."
Judith Brogdon, who shares the home with her parents, said a majority of their belongings on the second floor were sucked out the window. She spent part of Monday picking her 9-year-old daughter's school clothes out of the trees.
"Family heirlooms were sucked out the window and shattered," she said.
The second floor has to be gutted, Ward said, but the home is structurally sound.
"You see it on the news all the time with other people, but you never think it would hit you," Ward said.
Barbara Baerward, Ward's mother, spent most of Tuesday morning trying to get the couple's insurance agent to assess the damage. She said when her husband called her about the damage, she thought he was joking.
"When I came in here, there was water flowing from every electrical socket," she said. "It was coming down every wall."
Jack Baerward said they don't plan to tear down the home and start over.
"We have too much love in this place," he said. "I've done so much in this house.''
"We got banged up, beat up, but we are all still here," Baerward said.
Staff writer Venita Jenkins can be reached at jenkinsv@fayobserver.com or (910) 738-9158.
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