Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Monday, March 24, 2008
'It was deathly quiet'
By Steve Lawson
News Editor
Bob Wyatt and other members of the town staff listened closely to updates on the path of the tornado from an emergency services scanner in the main office of Stoneville Town Hall on March 20, 1998.
“From the path it seemed to be taking, we were beginning to believe it could be a real threat to us,” Wyatt said.
About that time, a man delivering water in the area entered town hall and warned Wyatt and the others to take cover immediately because the tornado was headed toward them. Everyone in the building took shelter in a large safe used for document storage.
“As soon as we were secure in the vault, it hit,” Wyatt said. “Thirty seconds later, it was deathly quiet.”
When everyone exited the safe and began to check for damage, they soon discovered they were trapped in the building by debris blocking the doors.
“Thank goodness the delivery guy left his truck and came in to warn us,” Wyatt said. “The storm sent a 2-by-4 right through his truck.”
Wyatt said his first reaction after looking at the devastation was total shock. He was instantly frightened by what might have happened to the town’s residents.
“Something like that lets you know real fast that you’re not in control of what happens,” he said.
When enough debris was cleared from the doorway at Town Hall, Wyatt walked to Henry Street and saw the destruction to the town’s downtown.
“It looked just like a war zone,” he said. “There was rubble and debris everywhere.”
Turning to look north up the street toward his home, Wyatt expected to see it leveled. The coin-operated laundry was destroyed and the hair salon was damaged, but there appeared to be little damage to the homes beyond those buildings.
“It still baffles me how some things were destroyed and others left untouched or with little damage,” Wyatt said. “It’s hard to comprehend how random something like that can be.”
Within hours of the 3:35 p.m. tornado strike, advance teams from the N.C. State Emergency Response Team arrived to begin search-and-rescue operations. Search teams with cadaver dogs worked through the first night checking through the sites of fallen buildings.
“The dogs alerted several times at the site of the Laundromat, but, thankfully, it turned out to be just clothes,” Wyatt said. “There was no one in the building when it collapsed.”
Wyatt remains amazed at the number of agencies that immediately came to the town’s aid. In addition to SERT crews, there were troopers from the State Highway Patrol and N.C. National Guard personnel to handle security and man roadblocks until the debris could be cleared enough to reopen roads through downtown. A Highway Patrol helicopter was dispatched to help with early damage assessments.
The Salvation Army, American Red Cross and Baptist Men brought in mobile canteens and kitchens to help feed residents and emergency workers.
“Duke Power crews seemed to be on the scene as soon as it happened,” Wyatt said. “They started working away from the center of town and worked their way into town to restore the power as quickly as possible,” Wyatt said. “And DOT was there within hours to start helping get the damaged roads repaired and reopened.”
Wyatt said the overwhelming aid offered by so many still amazes him. In retrospect, he wonders how he could have handled the aftermath without them.
“The one thing that stands out now is the very totality of the destruction to the heart of the town,” he said. “That first day, the guy heading up the emergency team told me not to worry about anything, that they had everything under control.
“It seems they try not to let the people most affected by these tragedies make the important decisions because they realize the kind of stress and shock they’re already dealing with in the aftermath.”
Wyatt said he and other town officials worked alongside emergency personnel throughout the next day, getting only about three or four hours sleep since the tornado hit. They started back to work again early Sunday morning.
“Most all of us stopped and went to the 11 o’clock service at First Baptist that morning,” Wyatt said. “We just stopped what we were working on and walked into church. It really helped us get some perspective on where we were and what we were doing.”
Ten years later, Wyatt still has occasional flashbacks about that day.
“They just come from out of the blue,” he said. “That day has really changed the way a lot of us view weather alerts. It’s like we’re always anxious about something like that happening again.”
News Editor Steve Lawson can be reached at slawson@reidsvillereview.com or at 548-6047.
News Editor
Bob Wyatt and other members of the town staff listened closely to updates on the path of the tornado from an emergency services scanner in the main office of Stoneville Town Hall on March 20, 1998.
“From the path it seemed to be taking, we were beginning to believe it could be a real threat to us,” Wyatt said.
About that time, a man delivering water in the area entered town hall and warned Wyatt and the others to take cover immediately because the tornado was headed toward them. Everyone in the building took shelter in a large safe used for document storage.
“As soon as we were secure in the vault, it hit,” Wyatt said. “Thirty seconds later, it was deathly quiet.”
When everyone exited the safe and began to check for damage, they soon discovered they were trapped in the building by debris blocking the doors.
“Thank goodness the delivery guy left his truck and came in to warn us,” Wyatt said. “The storm sent a 2-by-4 right through his truck.”
Wyatt said his first reaction after looking at the devastation was total shock. He was instantly frightened by what might have happened to the town’s residents.
“Something like that lets you know real fast that you’re not in control of what happens,” he said.
When enough debris was cleared from the doorway at Town Hall, Wyatt walked to Henry Street and saw the destruction to the town’s downtown.
“It looked just like a war zone,” he said. “There was rubble and debris everywhere.”
Turning to look north up the street toward his home, Wyatt expected to see it leveled. The coin-operated laundry was destroyed and the hair salon was damaged, but there appeared to be little damage to the homes beyond those buildings.
“It still baffles me how some things were destroyed and others left untouched or with little damage,” Wyatt said. “It’s hard to comprehend how random something like that can be.”
Within hours of the 3:35 p.m. tornado strike, advance teams from the N.C. State Emergency Response Team arrived to begin search-and-rescue operations. Search teams with cadaver dogs worked through the first night checking through the sites of fallen buildings.
“The dogs alerted several times at the site of the Laundromat, but, thankfully, it turned out to be just clothes,” Wyatt said. “There was no one in the building when it collapsed.”
Wyatt remains amazed at the number of agencies that immediately came to the town’s aid. In addition to SERT crews, there were troopers from the State Highway Patrol and N.C. National Guard personnel to handle security and man roadblocks until the debris could be cleared enough to reopen roads through downtown. A Highway Patrol helicopter was dispatched to help with early damage assessments.
The Salvation Army, American Red Cross and Baptist Men brought in mobile canteens and kitchens to help feed residents and emergency workers.
“Duke Power crews seemed to be on the scene as soon as it happened,” Wyatt said. “They started working away from the center of town and worked their way into town to restore the power as quickly as possible,” Wyatt said. “And DOT was there within hours to start helping get the damaged roads repaired and reopened.”
Wyatt said the overwhelming aid offered by so many still amazes him. In retrospect, he wonders how he could have handled the aftermath without them.
“The one thing that stands out now is the very totality of the destruction to the heart of the town,” he said. “That first day, the guy heading up the emergency team told me not to worry about anything, that they had everything under control.
“It seems they try not to let the people most affected by these tragedies make the important decisions because they realize the kind of stress and shock they’re already dealing with in the aftermath.”
Wyatt said he and other town officials worked alongside emergency personnel throughout the next day, getting only about three or four hours sleep since the tornado hit. They started back to work again early Sunday morning.
“Most all of us stopped and went to the 11 o’clock service at First Baptist that morning,” Wyatt said. “We just stopped what we were working on and walked into church. It really helped us get some perspective on where we were and what we were doing.”
Ten years later, Wyatt still has occasional flashbacks about that day.
“They just come from out of the blue,” he said. “That day has really changed the way a lot of us view weather alerts. It’s like we’re always anxious about something like that happening again.”
News Editor Steve Lawson can be reached at slawson@reidsvillereview.com or at 548-6047.
Sign survives tornado
By Steve Lawson
News Editor
The sign that greets visitors to the new T&M Hair Gallery in Stoneville stands as a testament to courage and perseverance. Mounted to the front of the salon’s reception desk, the sign once hung outside the original T&M location.
“It was one of the few things that survived the tornado,” said shop owner Misty Manring. “So we thought it deserved to be refinished and given a special place.”
Manring and her staff vividly remember March 20, 1998. It was the day their lives changed in just a few minutes.
With a storm brewing outside, things were normal inside the original T&M building before the tornado struck. Manring remembers hearing the town’s warning siren and looking out the window of her shop.
“I looked over toward Claybrook Tire and saw the funnel cloud heading straight toward us,” she said.
Manring and six others rushed to the rear of the shop and lay on the floor. Seconds later, the tornado blew out the windows and ripped away the roof and part of the back wall.
“When we walked out, the winds had swapped things from room to room and there were glass daggers sticking in the walls everywhere,” Manring said. “I never dreamed we would see something like that here.”
Likening the scene that greeted them outside the building to a war zone, Manring said there were power poles sticking out of customer’s cars and power lines across the road everywhere.
“It was awful,” she said. “We immediately checked the water tower right behind us. If that had fallen, we would have been crushed.”
Manring also learned a lesson on the selective nature of tornadoes. A laundry on the west side of the salon and a service station to the east were destroyed.
“Thank God there was no one in either of those buildings at the time,” she said. “We even thought about running to hide in the oil pit at the service station but didn’t think we had time. If we had, we would have been trapped or worse when the building collapsed.”
Since that day, Manring has seen changes around her town. The downtown blocks that received so much damage have been rebuilt. New businesses have helped improve the diversity of the downtown area.
“It was sad to lose two lives that day, but there have been some positive changes to grow out of that tragic time in our town,” Manring said. “I think the tornado helped bring us together as a community.”
T&M Hair Gallery opened its new location in November just behind the site of the original building. Manring said the damages to the old building were repaired and the business remained open while the new shop was planned and built. The old site is now a larger parking area for customers.
“It’s really nice to have this larger, more modern location, but I wouldn’t want to go through something like that again,” Manring said.
News Editor Steve Lawson can be reached at slawson@reidsvillereview.com or at 548-6047
News Editor
The sign that greets visitors to the new T&M Hair Gallery in Stoneville stands as a testament to courage and perseverance. Mounted to the front of the salon’s reception desk, the sign once hung outside the original T&M location.
“It was one of the few things that survived the tornado,” said shop owner Misty Manring. “So we thought it deserved to be refinished and given a special place.”
Manring and her staff vividly remember March 20, 1998. It was the day their lives changed in just a few minutes.
With a storm brewing outside, things were normal inside the original T&M building before the tornado struck. Manring remembers hearing the town’s warning siren and looking out the window of her shop.
“I looked over toward Claybrook Tire and saw the funnel cloud heading straight toward us,” she said.
Manring and six others rushed to the rear of the shop and lay on the floor. Seconds later, the tornado blew out the windows and ripped away the roof and part of the back wall.
“When we walked out, the winds had swapped things from room to room and there were glass daggers sticking in the walls everywhere,” Manring said. “I never dreamed we would see something like that here.”
Likening the scene that greeted them outside the building to a war zone, Manring said there were power poles sticking out of customer’s cars and power lines across the road everywhere.
“It was awful,” she said. “We immediately checked the water tower right behind us. If that had fallen, we would have been crushed.”
Manring also learned a lesson on the selective nature of tornadoes. A laundry on the west side of the salon and a service station to the east were destroyed.
“Thank God there was no one in either of those buildings at the time,” she said. “We even thought about running to hide in the oil pit at the service station but didn’t think we had time. If we had, we would have been trapped or worse when the building collapsed.”
Since that day, Manring has seen changes around her town. The downtown blocks that received so much damage have been rebuilt. New businesses have helped improve the diversity of the downtown area.
“It was sad to lose two lives that day, but there have been some positive changes to grow out of that tragic time in our town,” Manring said. “I think the tornado helped bring us together as a community.”
T&M Hair Gallery opened its new location in November just behind the site of the original building. Manring said the damages to the old building were repaired and the business remained open while the new shop was planned and built. The old site is now a larger parking area for customers.
“It’s really nice to have this larger, more modern location, but I wouldn’t want to go through something like that again,” Manring said.
News Editor Steve Lawson can be reached at slawson@reidsvillereview.com or at 548-6047
'I saw that day'
By Steve Lawson
News Editor
Sitting in the gazebo built on the former site of Elliott Duncan School in Mayodan, Ed Shelton recalled a time a decade earlier when the spot looked more like a war zone than a recreation area – the day of the March 20, 1998 tornado.
“It’s hard to believe that something good came out of the destruction I saw that day,” Shelton said. “You could barely move through this area for all the debris and rubble everywhere, but now there’s children playing on the playground and people walking the track here every day.”
Ten years ago, Shelton said he was standing outside the police department with a dispatcher when he noticed the storm moving toward the area.
“I didn’t like the way the clouds were churning around and we went back inside,” he said. “When I went back out, I saw people running down the street toward me. I asked what they were running from and they told me it was a tornado.”
Shelton said he tried to get them to come into the police department and take cover in the jail area. Then he went into city hall and warned Town Manager Debby Cardwell and the rest of the town staff.
“Debby just thought I was kidding,” Shelton said. “But about that time they saw it moving away from the town.”
Shelton drove up Main Street toward the Methodist church, but he couldn’t get far because of rubble in the streets. He got far enough to see the church had been destroyed.
Returning to town hall, he told Cardwell about the church.
“All she could say was, ‘You’re kidding,’” he said.
The two headed back up the street to inspect the damage and were devastated by what they saw.
“It was just by the grace of God that no one was killed in all of that,” Shelton said. “If it had been a couple hours later, there would have been more people at home and on the streets. It could have been a lot worse.”
Shelton said they immediately went back to the town offices and started making phone calls. That’s when something else amazing happened.
“People started calling us to offer their help almost immediately,” Shelton said. “The Burlington police chief called and said he would (get) some people to help out. He sent enough to help us out for days. That’s something I’ll never forget.”
Shelton also remembers having to shut down the town and work day and night for days to get things cleaned up and back in some semblance of order. He recalls how people throughout the community teamed with people from around the state and beyond to bring order out of chaos.
“It was people helping people, and that’s what you need at a time like that,” Shelton said. “That’s what it’s all about.”
As Shelton looked around the park that sits where Elliott Duncan used to stand and across the street to the new Mayodan United Methodist Church, he found it hard to believe those places replaced the destruction he remembered.
“It’s hard to believe there was ever a school here now,” he said. “Thank God the school was no longer in use when the tornado came through. That day could have been a lot worse.”
News Editor Steve Lawson can be reached at slawson@reidsvillereview.com or at 548-6047.
News Editor
Sitting in the gazebo built on the former site of Elliott Duncan School in Mayodan, Ed Shelton recalled a time a decade earlier when the spot looked more like a war zone than a recreation area – the day of the March 20, 1998 tornado.
“It’s hard to believe that something good came out of the destruction I saw that day,” Shelton said. “You could barely move through this area for all the debris and rubble everywhere, but now there’s children playing on the playground and people walking the track here every day.”
Ten years ago, Shelton said he was standing outside the police department with a dispatcher when he noticed the storm moving toward the area.
“I didn’t like the way the clouds were churning around and we went back inside,” he said. “When I went back out, I saw people running down the street toward me. I asked what they were running from and they told me it was a tornado.”
Shelton said he tried to get them to come into the police department and take cover in the jail area. Then he went into city hall and warned Town Manager Debby Cardwell and the rest of the town staff.
“Debby just thought I was kidding,” Shelton said. “But about that time they saw it moving away from the town.”
Shelton drove up Main Street toward the Methodist church, but he couldn’t get far because of rubble in the streets. He got far enough to see the church had been destroyed.
Returning to town hall, he told Cardwell about the church.
“All she could say was, ‘You’re kidding,’” he said.
The two headed back up the street to inspect the damage and were devastated by what they saw.
“It was just by the grace of God that no one was killed in all of that,” Shelton said. “If it had been a couple hours later, there would have been more people at home and on the streets. It could have been a lot worse.”
Shelton said they immediately went back to the town offices and started making phone calls. That’s when something else amazing happened.
“People started calling us to offer their help almost immediately,” Shelton said. “The Burlington police chief called and said he would (get) some people to help out. He sent enough to help us out for days. That’s something I’ll never forget.”
Shelton also remembers having to shut down the town and work day and night for days to get things cleaned up and back in some semblance of order. He recalls how people throughout the community teamed with people from around the state and beyond to bring order out of chaos.
“It was people helping people, and that’s what you need at a time like that,” Shelton said. “That’s what it’s all about.”
As Shelton looked around the park that sits where Elliott Duncan used to stand and across the street to the new Mayodan United Methodist Church, he found it hard to believe those places replaced the destruction he remembered.
“It’s hard to believe there was ever a school here now,” he said. “Thank God the school was no longer in use when the tornado came through. That day could have been a lot worse.”
News Editor Steve Lawson can be reached at slawson@reidsvillereview.com or at 548-6047.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Former principal places fitting memorial
By Steve Lawson
News Editor
When a tornado rolled through her hometown on March 20, 1998, Faye Frye was hours away in Fayetteville.
As principal of Stoneville Elementary School, Frye also served on a Southern Association team that helped to evaluate other schools, and she was with that team.
“I got a call from a family member about five o’clock that afternoon telling me about the tornado,” Frye said. “I started making plans right then to head back home.”
Frye discovered someone from the school had been trying to call her since the tornado struck but had failed to get through because phone lines were down and cell towers were overloaded with calls.
“I was warned not to try to come back because of tornadoes and storm damages between Stoneville and the eastern part of the state,” she said. “I did have to make a lot of detours along the way and didn’t arrive back home until almost midnight.”
When Frye arrived back home she was greeted by two Stoneville firefighters. Jake Hundley, who was the town’s fire chief at the time, had told them to bring her to the school to open the gymnasium and auditorium building to use as an emergency command center.
“I still remember being led through town that night,” Frye said. “A lot of the debris had been cleared to allow emergency vehicles to get through, but even in the dark it looked like something from a war zone. I had no concept of the amount of damage that had been done.”
That image became more vivid when Frye toured the town about 6 a.m. the next morning.
“I had the impression that the tornado sort of hit here, then there,” she said. “I had no idea of the extent of damage to the heart of town until I saw it in the light of day.”
Frye spent most of Saturday on the phone with people from the community, county, state and even from across the nation. She fielded a lot of calls from the press.
“I called Superintendent (George) Fleetwood about midday and told him I desperately needed some help,” Frye said. “My assistant at the school had damage to her own home, and I told her to take care of that first. But I was being swamped with calls and duties securing the school.”
Fleetwood sent three people to help Frye.
On Monday, Frye met with her staff at McMichael High School. She told them that core of 82 people had to pull together to make it through what was before them.
“We knew we had to support each other emotionally and otherwise during this crisis,” Frye said. “With all that was going on, the county decided to give us until Wednesday to start school back.”
Reopening school to students created a new set of problems for Frye and the Stoneville Elementary staff. Realizing how emotional the past few days had been for them as adults, they recognized the potential for distress among the student body.
“By then, everyone had pitched in to clean up the downtown area,” Frye said. “But we knew the students would have to ride through that area to get to school and thought it could very well be a disturbing sight for them.”
Frye was also concerned about the emotional impact of the loss of one of their own during the tornado. Beth Mitchell, one of two Stoneville residents killed as a result of the storm, was a teacher at the school.
“We all knew her and love her,” Frye said. “It was rough on me and the rest of the staff, and we knew it could be a tough adjustment for the students as well.”
When students returned to campus Wednesday they were greeted by staff members, assistants and parent volunteers. Extra school counselors from other schools in the district were there to help students who were having trouble handling the situation.
Fortunately, the school itself received very little damage from the tornado, making it easy for things to get back to some semblance of normality – at least physically.
“We were very lucky the storm didn’t shift a hundred feet east or the school would have been gone as well,” Frye said.
She commended the work of Ken Dowdle and Debbie Joyce-Jenkins -- staff members she left in charge while in Fayetteville -- for keeping everyone safe during the actual storm.
“We still had about a hundred kids at school for after-school care that day,” Frye said. “Ken and Debbie, and the rest of the staff, did a great job keeping everyone calm and safe during a very frightening time for all of them.”
Later in the spring of 1998, the school placed a memorial to Beth Mitchell in the courtyard outside the auditorium building. The memorial consisted of a plaque and birdbath.
“Everyone wanted to do something as a tribute to her, and it helped in the healing process for all of us,” she said.
Frye and grandson C.J. Frye, currently a fifth-grader at Stoneville Elementary, recently replaced the birdbath with a small lighthouse. They also planted flowers around the base of the memorial.
“The birdbath kept getting blown over with strong winds and storms,” Frye said. “I remembered how much Beth loved the beach and thought the lighthouse would be a fitting tribute.”
News Editor Steve Lawson can be reached at slawson@reidsvillereview.com or at 548-6047.
News Editor
When a tornado rolled through her hometown on March 20, 1998, Faye Frye was hours away in Fayetteville.
As principal of Stoneville Elementary School, Frye also served on a Southern Association team that helped to evaluate other schools, and she was with that team.
“I got a call from a family member about five o’clock that afternoon telling me about the tornado,” Frye said. “I started making plans right then to head back home.”
Frye discovered someone from the school had been trying to call her since the tornado struck but had failed to get through because phone lines were down and cell towers were overloaded with calls.
“I was warned not to try to come back because of tornadoes and storm damages between Stoneville and the eastern part of the state,” she said. “I did have to make a lot of detours along the way and didn’t arrive back home until almost midnight.”
When Frye arrived back home she was greeted by two Stoneville firefighters. Jake Hundley, who was the town’s fire chief at the time, had told them to bring her to the school to open the gymnasium and auditorium building to use as an emergency command center.
“I still remember being led through town that night,” Frye said. “A lot of the debris had been cleared to allow emergency vehicles to get through, but even in the dark it looked like something from a war zone. I had no concept of the amount of damage that had been done.”
That image became more vivid when Frye toured the town about 6 a.m. the next morning.
“I had the impression that the tornado sort of hit here, then there,” she said. “I had no idea of the extent of damage to the heart of town until I saw it in the light of day.”
Frye spent most of Saturday on the phone with people from the community, county, state and even from across the nation. She fielded a lot of calls from the press.
“I called Superintendent (George) Fleetwood about midday and told him I desperately needed some help,” Frye said. “My assistant at the school had damage to her own home, and I told her to take care of that first. But I was being swamped with calls and duties securing the school.”
Fleetwood sent three people to help Frye.
On Monday, Frye met with her staff at McMichael High School. She told them that core of 82 people had to pull together to make it through what was before them.
“We knew we had to support each other emotionally and otherwise during this crisis,” Frye said. “With all that was going on, the county decided to give us until Wednesday to start school back.”
Reopening school to students created a new set of problems for Frye and the Stoneville Elementary staff. Realizing how emotional the past few days had been for them as adults, they recognized the potential for distress among the student body.
“By then, everyone had pitched in to clean up the downtown area,” Frye said. “But we knew the students would have to ride through that area to get to school and thought it could very well be a disturbing sight for them.”
Frye was also concerned about the emotional impact of the loss of one of their own during the tornado. Beth Mitchell, one of two Stoneville residents killed as a result of the storm, was a teacher at the school.
“We all knew her and love her,” Frye said. “It was rough on me and the rest of the staff, and we knew it could be a tough adjustment for the students as well.”
When students returned to campus Wednesday they were greeted by staff members, assistants and parent volunteers. Extra school counselors from other schools in the district were there to help students who were having trouble handling the situation.
Fortunately, the school itself received very little damage from the tornado, making it easy for things to get back to some semblance of normality – at least physically.
“We were very lucky the storm didn’t shift a hundred feet east or the school would have been gone as well,” Frye said.
She commended the work of Ken Dowdle and Debbie Joyce-Jenkins -- staff members she left in charge while in Fayetteville -- for keeping everyone safe during the actual storm.
“We still had about a hundred kids at school for after-school care that day,” Frye said. “Ken and Debbie, and the rest of the staff, did a great job keeping everyone calm and safe during a very frightening time for all of them.”
Later in the spring of 1998, the school placed a memorial to Beth Mitchell in the courtyard outside the auditorium building. The memorial consisted of a plaque and birdbath.
“Everyone wanted to do something as a tribute to her, and it helped in the healing process for all of us,” she said.
Frye and grandson C.J. Frye, currently a fifth-grader at Stoneville Elementary, recently replaced the birdbath with a small lighthouse. They also planted flowers around the base of the memorial.
“The birdbath kept getting blown over with strong winds and storms,” Frye said. “I remembered how much Beth loved the beach and thought the lighthouse would be a fitting tribute.”
News Editor Steve Lawson can be reached at slawson@reidsvillereview.com or at 548-6047.
'The amazing grace of God'
By Steve Lawson
News Editor
On his way out of Kmart shortly after 3 p.m. March 20, 1998, the Rev. Paul Sisk and other shoppers were called back in and directed to the layaway department at the rear of the store.
“They said there was a tornado headed toward the shopping center and we all needed to take cover as quick as we could,” Sisk said.
Sisk said he could see the storm headed in the direction of the store when it seemed to take about a 45-degree turn – directly toward Sisk’s church, West Side Baptist in Mayodan.
“I’d just left the church about 20 minutes before,” he said.
“But for the amazing grace of God, I would have been in that building when it hit,” Sisk said. “It’s a miracle no one was seriously injured or killed in Mayodan with all the damage done that day.”
Sisk said he and the other shoppers stayed in the rear of the store for about 45 minutes until they were certain it was clear outside. People then scrambled to use the store’s phone lines to call loved ones.
“I called my wife and she told me the church had been destroyed,” he said.
Sisk thought his wife had confused their church with the Mayodan United Methodist Church. He had heard the caller using the phone before him say that church had been destroyed.
“Then she told me both churches had been hit,” Sisk said.
Debris, fallen trees and emergency vehicles blocking the road made the two-minute drive from Kmart to the church last almost a half hour. Along the way, Sisk saw the damage to houses and cars. Still, it did little to prepare him for the sight of his own church.
When he got there, the sanctuary was a pile of brick and timber.
“It was a disaster area. It looked like a war zone,” Sisk said.
“Right here’s where it hit to start with,” Sisk said, pointing to old pictures in a scrapbook. It was taken just outside the church and showed a large depression of cracked asphalt in a rough, round shape. “It hit the asphalt in the parking lot and then jumped from here over to here and took the whole end of it.”
The congregation was able to salvage 22 pews that it donated to a Baptist church in Pinnacle. The church piano also survived. Sisk said it was removed and stored by a company in Kernersville. When it was opened up to look for damage, the piano company folks happily reported the piano might as well have been sitting in their showroom instead of a church borne down on by a tornado.
“He said preacher, that thing didn’t get wet. It was amazing,” Sisk said. “Didn’t even have to clean it out. No dust or nothing in it. So that was a miracle.”
In addition to destroying the education and sanctuary building, the tornado did more than $5,000 in damage to the adjoining fellowship hall. Church members pulled together to complete repairs to that building in one week and were able to hold services there by the next Sunday.
“Joe Jenkins from Ray Funeral Home offered to let us use their chapel until we could finish repairs at the fellowship hall,” Sisk said. “We met there for morning and evening services the Sunday after the storm and the next Wednesday. We were in our own building again the next Sunday, but it was certainly a tight fit.”
One year later, the congregation moved into a new educational building and sanctuary. The new building was larger and more modern than the previous facility and, Sisk said, they were able to rebuild debt-free.
“We had good insurance on the building, but we also had help from places we couldn’t have imagined,” he said. “With all of the national news coverage on the disaster, we ended up getting donations from people and other churches all over the country. It was amazing to watch God work in the aftermath of that day.”
Ironically, Sisk said, the church spent about $130,000 in renovations to the previous building in the year prior to the tornado and then ended up with a facility nearly twice as large without extra debt.
“It was truly God’s amazing grace working everything out, but I don’t think any of us would want to go through that again for a new building.”
Although he admits it was sad to see the church he had served in 22 years at the time blown away, there was relief that no one was there at the time.
“Our church family grieved some over the loss of our building, but, at the same time, we were thrilled that no one was hurt in such a devastating storm,” he said. “It really bonded our congregation together.”
News Editor
On his way out of Kmart shortly after 3 p.m. March 20, 1998, the Rev. Paul Sisk and other shoppers were called back in and directed to the layaway department at the rear of the store.
“They said there was a tornado headed toward the shopping center and we all needed to take cover as quick as we could,” Sisk said.
Sisk said he could see the storm headed in the direction of the store when it seemed to take about a 45-degree turn – directly toward Sisk’s church, West Side Baptist in Mayodan.
“I’d just left the church about 20 minutes before,” he said.
“But for the amazing grace of God, I would have been in that building when it hit,” Sisk said. “It’s a miracle no one was seriously injured or killed in Mayodan with all the damage done that day.”
Sisk said he and the other shoppers stayed in the rear of the store for about 45 minutes until they were certain it was clear outside. People then scrambled to use the store’s phone lines to call loved ones.
“I called my wife and she told me the church had been destroyed,” he said.
Sisk thought his wife had confused their church with the Mayodan United Methodist Church. He had heard the caller using the phone before him say that church had been destroyed.
“Then she told me both churches had been hit,” Sisk said.
Debris, fallen trees and emergency vehicles blocking the road made the two-minute drive from Kmart to the church last almost a half hour. Along the way, Sisk saw the damage to houses and cars. Still, it did little to prepare him for the sight of his own church.
When he got there, the sanctuary was a pile of brick and timber.
“It was a disaster area. It looked like a war zone,” Sisk said.
“Right here’s where it hit to start with,” Sisk said, pointing to old pictures in a scrapbook. It was taken just outside the church and showed a large depression of cracked asphalt in a rough, round shape. “It hit the asphalt in the parking lot and then jumped from here over to here and took the whole end of it.”
The congregation was able to salvage 22 pews that it donated to a Baptist church in Pinnacle. The church piano also survived. Sisk said it was removed and stored by a company in Kernersville. When it was opened up to look for damage, the piano company folks happily reported the piano might as well have been sitting in their showroom instead of a church borne down on by a tornado.
“He said preacher, that thing didn’t get wet. It was amazing,” Sisk said. “Didn’t even have to clean it out. No dust or nothing in it. So that was a miracle.”
In addition to destroying the education and sanctuary building, the tornado did more than $5,000 in damage to the adjoining fellowship hall. Church members pulled together to complete repairs to that building in one week and were able to hold services there by the next Sunday.
“Joe Jenkins from Ray Funeral Home offered to let us use their chapel until we could finish repairs at the fellowship hall,” Sisk said. “We met there for morning and evening services the Sunday after the storm and the next Wednesday. We were in our own building again the next Sunday, but it was certainly a tight fit.”
One year later, the congregation moved into a new educational building and sanctuary. The new building was larger and more modern than the previous facility and, Sisk said, they were able to rebuild debt-free.
“We had good insurance on the building, but we also had help from places we couldn’t have imagined,” he said. “With all of the national news coverage on the disaster, we ended up getting donations from people and other churches all over the country. It was amazing to watch God work in the aftermath of that day.”
Ironically, Sisk said, the church spent about $130,000 in renovations to the previous building in the year prior to the tornado and then ended up with a facility nearly twice as large without extra debt.
“It was truly God’s amazing grace working everything out, but I don’t think any of us would want to go through that again for a new building.”
Although he admits it was sad to see the church he had served in 22 years at the time blown away, there was relief that no one was there at the time.
“Our church family grieved some over the loss of our building, but, at the same time, we were thrilled that no one was hurt in such a devastating storm,” he said. “It really bonded our congregation together.”
Friday, March 14, 2008
Watch videoTwo die; school, churches destroyed
By Heather J. Smith
Staff writer
Some mark March 20, 1998 as the day they lost everything.
Less than a minute of hellish wind and the tornado howled on. Recalling it, survivors describe moving toward shelter by instinct as they heard the storm's approach, realizing the danger later. Some had seconds to scramble under desks, into bathtubs, under bridges.
Few had experienced twisters, unaware of the sound, the speed and the destruction. The storm shook the walls around them, tossing aside trees and stealing breath. Prayers were uttered in haste.
Tornadoes don't happen here, they said to each other later. No one alive remembered a tornado, certainly not one of this magnitude.
Exhausted after tearing through Pine Hall, Madison, Mayodan and Stoneville, the funnel retreated, but the system rallied and touched down again in southern Virginia, scattering belongings ripped from the lives it disrupted. Invoices from Southern Finishing's devastated building fluttered to the ground in Axton, Va. Belongings of Rockingham County residents landed in Lynchburg, Va.
Residents of western Rockingham County picked their way out of ruined houses and overturned cars. Dazed, some found their homes and families safe. Others walked through ruined streets, finding their towns changed and their businesses, houses and churches damaged, their loved ones injured.
Some of the structures were leveled. Some were not missing the first shingle or gutter.
Two people died. Beth Mitchell was 24. The car driven by the Stoneville Elementary third-grade teacher was tossed into a building, killing Beth and critically injuring her mother, Nancy. The storm struck the home of Powell "Roud" Hickman, an elderly Stoneville farmer, throwing him from the house. People still mourn their loss but offer thanks that more did not perish.
A beautiful day
Residents remember a brilliant, sunny morning following three days of rain, but the weather changed as the day wore on. Sheryl Eaves, now assistant principal at Western Rockingham Middle School, remembered remarking to her fellow teachers and band students about the morning's beauty. But as she sat in her room later that afternoon, dark clouds rushed to cover the sun.
"It was just so sudden," Eaves said. "All that day, I remember this kind of ominous feeling. I was sitting in my classroom after the dismissal bell and I noticed it got so dark outside. "
Ten reported tornadoes touched down in North Carolina that day. The strongest began in Stokes County and moved through Rockingham, injuring 27 in addition to the fatalities. In 24 minutes, the storm traveled 12 miles before lifting off the ground west of Eden. The same system spawned a weaker tornado in Henry County, Va., not 10 minutes later.
Unfamiliar territory
North Carolina is not unfamiliar with such storms, but this tornado was unusually strong. Meteorologists rated it on the upper range of an F3, a level usually found in America's plains.
Stephen Keighton, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Blacksburg, Va., said complex layers of conditions produced a tornado that should have been impossible in this terrain.
Though not as mountainous as land to the north, Rockingham County is hillier than areas that typically bear tornados. Tornadoes more often happen in the southern Piedmont, where the warm, moist air that fuels strong thunderstorms isn't pushed away by cool, higher elevations.
"The flatter terrain reduces the friction in the boundary layer of the atmosphere, helping the low-level winds and wind shear to support tornado formation," Keighton wrote in an e-mail. "Not that it can't come together in the mountains, it's just not as likely."
Compare our atmosphere to a river of air. Pockets of warm and cold air collide and push the other aside as the current flows north and west. The sunny March day heated air still moist after days of rain, creating a pool of humidity above western Rockingham County. A warm front from Virginia descending south and cold air pushing up from Georgia butted against moisture here. Heat, cold and moisture reacted in the sky as it does boiling on a stove.
The fronts collided, forming a strong thunderstorm. Hot and cold air scraped past each other, prompting a stormy rotation.
Funnel cloud
Before touching down, a funnel cloud damaged property in the small Stokes County town of Pine Hall. The fellowship hall of Morning Star Baptist Church was hit especially hard -- walls were knocked off the foundation and windows were broken.
Tornadoes typically weaken as they travel. Buildings and forests slow winds as they connect, but the 1998 tornado crossed into Rockingham County with growing speed.
From Pine Hall, the funnel cloud moved toward Madison, mostly across uninhabited land. Twenty minutes after the dismissal bell rang at Western Rockingham Middle School, teachers frantically ushered students waiting for rides home back into the school. Buses were already on the road. Fallen trees had already trapped one bus on N.C. 704.
Eaves was the middle school band teacher. Her observation of quick, dark clouds was her first clue of impending danger. The faculty was told to take cover, and Eaves and her son ducked into the band room and prayed. They huddled there; unsure whether it was safe to leave even after the building stopped shaking.
"No one ever told me that tornadoes couldn't turn and double back," Eaves said. "I was going to stay there until I knew it was gone."
Eaves peeked outside and saw two swirling cones reaching from ground to sky merge into a solid column. The tornado touched down just yards from the school.
A field separated the middle school from Unifi Plant No. 5. Clear, level ground gave the cone a landing strip to rally force before striking the factory. It tore the roof and wall off one of the factory buildings, picking up shingles, scrap metal and debris. Before leveling several houses, it flung a large steel exhaust fan some 300 yards.
A destructive path
The tornado next went to Kingswood Apartments, a small complex across from West Side Baptist on Ayersville Road. The few tenants at home took shelter in bathrooms and closets as wind ripped off roofs, shattered windows and deposited debris inside.
Former tenant Charles Joyner worked at Kobe Wieland Copper in Pine Hall. That Friday seemed ordinary - until the afternoon sky changed.
"All I remember is that we were sitting there in the office and it got black ... pitch black," Joyner said. Joyner was a volunteer firefighter in Mayodan. When his pager went off, he knew it wasn't a fire.
After leaving work, Joyner checked on his children, who were staying with their grandmother on Virginia Street. He heard that the church adjacent to Kingswood was damaged, and he went to take stock of his belongings.
"I left work to go check on my upstairs apartment and, needless to say, when I opened the door to my apartment, there was no roof on it," Joyner said.
Joyner's neighbor, who crawled under a bed when the tornado hit, commented that damage to his apartment could have been worse. Joyner went across the hall and found the storm had taken the neighbor's furnishings. The man told Joyner he survived by clutching a mattress.
"Unifi was right across the road and when I opened the door, physically it didn't look like anything wrong with my apartment. The apartment next to me, the whole back wall was gone," Joyner said. "But when I unlocked the door, there was no roof, but I had probably about 3 or 4 foot of cotton all over my living room and bathroom."
Unlike his neighbor, nothing was missing. Pillows and blankets were undisturbed; plants were still neatly in pots on the counter. Joyner remained in the ruined apartments that night to safeguard belongings.
Shelter after the storm
The National Guard found temporary homes for people, and a curfew kept those with the worst intentions indoors after dark. More than 190 houses were damaged. Miraculously, no one in Mayodan was killed.
Connie Fox, Mayodan United Methodist Church's unofficial historian and a member since childhood, was safely on the other side of town at Frontier Spinning Mills. A warning call answered by the receptionist at the mill was yelled to everyone in earshot. Fox moved to the window.
"What was going through my mind was, there can't be a tornado. This is not tornado country," Fox said. "This little town is between two mountains. This can't be."
But the sight outside confirmed it. A funnel, top-heavy and slanted, was moving through the town center. Fox saw flying debris and knew a tornado formed in an improbable place. She knew it was unusually dangerous.
Employees hid under desks until it was safe. Outside, rain and hail fell after the funnel passed, and the temperature dropped to a biting coolness. Fox said her first reaction was to call her husband. She asked if he and their house were safe. He said yes, but the rest of the town was not so fortunate.
"He said the church is gone," Fox said. "And when he said that, I just lost it."
Fox said her husband watched the tornado move through neighborhoods and the ballfield, rip open the church and slam against the abandoned Elliott Duncan Elementary School.
The next day, Fox prepared herself for the sight of her home church in shambles and drove to town. Streets were still blocked by trucks and debris, so she parked and walked the two blocks to the church, the school building obscuring her view.
"When I got closer to the corner where I was about to come into view, one of my friends turned around and saw me coming," Fox said.
The friend ran to her and offered her arm, saying Fox should not see it alone. They rounded the corner, and Fox spied piles of brick where her church had stood a day before. The top half of the sanctuary was gone. The tornado tore at the fellowship hall, peeling off the roof but leaving the contents intact.
She wept.
That weekend, pastor Doug Miller, parishioners and people living nearby scoured the wreckage, salvaging anything not damaged. Pieces of their spiritual home were collected from the parking lot, nearby yards and the interior of the elementary school. Workers found the brass cross, collection plates, candlesticks and other items from the altar.
A fateful morning
In minutes, the tornado touched down, caused widespread destruction and moved on. The storm traveled past Mayodan's Main Street, down the valley to the Mayo River and over the mountain.
Hills and valleys did not weaken the storm, nor did miles of forests and farmland that lay between Mayodan and U.S. 220. It was here that Hickman, 80, died.
His widow, Allie Mae, now lives with her daughter on a small road off 220 in Stoneville. Fragile and gray, she can recall details of that fateful morning.
"We weren't doing anything special that day," she said. "(Roud) got up and fed the hogs and then he was out with his friends looking for timber to cut. I worked around the house."
Later, Allie Mae said, tornado warnings flashed across the TV and the weather grew violent. Roud, watching from the window, called her over to point out wind that was carrying away objects. The items became heavier as the storm raged. A tree fell outside, and windows of the two-story house burst with the pressure change of the approaching tornado.
Allie Mae said details of what happened next are not clear; she remembers regaining consciousness after the tornado picked the house apart.
Rescue workers found Allie Mae yards from the ruined house.
"'Course they found him dead, 500 feet away," she said.
Aerial photos show a flattened path as wide as a football field across the middle of Stoneville. Trees look like so much trampled grass, and buildings were scattered with debris. Southern Finishing's main office, an old tobacco warehouse, First National Bank and several other structures were heavily damaged. For the second time, the tornado brushed - but it did not hit - a school.
Renee Halpin and 37 students were in the auditorium at a play workshop when a voice announced over the P.A. system, "Renee, get those kids down now."
Halpin said tornado warnings usually began early and were repeated several times, but this was sudden, unexpected and terrifying.
"So, then we just ran to our positions where we were told, and everybody got near a wall," Halpin said. The tornado hit about 3:30 p.m., around the time buses were heading out and parents were waiting in cars outside. Everyone was called back in.
Cowering against the auditorium wall with her students, Halpin became fully aware of her responsibility for the small lives she ordinarily only protected from scrapes and teasing. She was frightened for herself, but she was more afraid for them.
"A lot of them were crying. A lot of them were very scared. And I kept saying, 'It's just a storm, we're going to be OK. It's just a storm, we're going to be OK.' And I don't know if I was trying to convince them of that, or just trying to convince myself of that," Halpin said.
Beth Mitchell
The twister pounded along, following the train tracks to Stoneville's center. Mitchell and her mother, Nancy Lee, had just crossed the tracks when Beth saw the storm hungrily ripping apart the houses of Hampton and Woodlawn streets. Beth stopped the car in front of Claybrook Tire. The funnel was less than a quarter mile away.
"It's a tornado," Beth said, panicked. "What do we do?"
Nancy said later it moved too fast for the car to escape, or to run from the car to safety. She told Beth to curl up in the car's floorboard with her poodle, Onyx. Mother hovered protectively over daughter as the dark funnel approached. Before she lost consciousness, Nancy remembers seeing flying shingles, metal, branches, plastic and other things moving too fast to discern.
Awake again, Nancy saw blood around her. She tried to rouse Beth, shook her and called her name. She looked for an injury that would explain why her daughter was still. She saw more blood.
"It wasn't from her because there wasn't a mark on her," Nancy said. The blood was hers, dripping from a deep gash in her scalp.
It was minutes before someone noticed the car trapped beneath Claybrook's collapsed building and began uncovering it. The uninjured hurried over to help. In a small community where all are either related or close friends, a circle of searchers reeled in horror when they realized Beth and Nancy were in the car.
Emergency workers extracted Nancy and took her to Morehead Memorial Hospital. Doctors discovered the cut caused a life-threatening blood clot, and she was moved to Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. She slipped in and out of consciousness the following days. One thought continually raced through her mind. She must tell her husband, Worth, that Beth didn't make it.
Away from home
Stoneville mayor Rex Tuggle and his wife, Julia, were attending a District Rotary meeting in Myrtle Beach, S.C. They were eating dinner, unaware of the tornado. Fellow guests first asked him about it casually. After the second mention, Tuggle told his wife he had better step outside to check his voicemail. Another guest told him the national news was saying Stoneville had been struck by an unusually strong tornado.
"I went out and checked my messages on my cell phone, and I had like 10 messages," Tuggle said. "Myrtle Beach police, the town manager, National Guard, my mother, my wife's mother, my daughter who ran my antiques store, you know, everybody was looking for us."
He called his daughter at home. Tending shop at Rex and Julia's Antiques on East Main Street that afternoon, she saw the twister approaching. She sheltered in a bathroom - one of the few rooms in the rear of the building that did not collapse. She told him two people were dead and the guts of damaged buildings blocked Henry Street. The National Guard stood guard to protect crippled homes and businesses from looters.
The Tuggles reached Stoneville by midnight, and he dropped her off at home before walking into town. He found rescue workers searching damaged buildings. Power lines were down and blackness hung past the reach of floodlights set up by searchers. People of Stoneville worked all that night, shaken and grieving, numbly searching the rubble.
"People's attitude was we'll never recover. I heard that from a lot of people. Stoneville is gone. We can't fix it," Tuggle said. "And there were others who said we will, we will rebuild. We'll make it better."
In Mayodan, pastors wrote sermons based on God's message of hope during life's darkest moments. In communities between the towns, families sheltered families, and relieved phone calls eased worried minds.
The earth turned on its axis, and healing began with the dawn of March 21, 1998.
Staff writer Heather J. Smith can be reached at hsmith@reidsvillereview.com or 623-2155, ext. 15.
Staff writer
Some mark March 20, 1998 as the day they lost everything.
Less than a minute of hellish wind and the tornado howled on. Recalling it, survivors describe moving toward shelter by instinct as they heard the storm's approach, realizing the danger later. Some had seconds to scramble under desks, into bathtubs, under bridges.
Few had experienced twisters, unaware of the sound, the speed and the destruction. The storm shook the walls around them, tossing aside trees and stealing breath. Prayers were uttered in haste.
Tornadoes don't happen here, they said to each other later. No one alive remembered a tornado, certainly not one of this magnitude.
Exhausted after tearing through Pine Hall, Madison, Mayodan and Stoneville, the funnel retreated, but the system rallied and touched down again in southern Virginia, scattering belongings ripped from the lives it disrupted. Invoices from Southern Finishing's devastated building fluttered to the ground in Axton, Va. Belongings of Rockingham County residents landed in Lynchburg, Va.
Residents of western Rockingham County picked their way out of ruined houses and overturned cars. Dazed, some found their homes and families safe. Others walked through ruined streets, finding their towns changed and their businesses, houses and churches damaged, their loved ones injured.
Some of the structures were leveled. Some were not missing the first shingle or gutter.
Two people died. Beth Mitchell was 24. The car driven by the Stoneville Elementary third-grade teacher was tossed into a building, killing Beth and critically injuring her mother, Nancy. The storm struck the home of Powell "Roud" Hickman, an elderly Stoneville farmer, throwing him from the house. People still mourn their loss but offer thanks that more did not perish.
A beautiful day
Residents remember a brilliant, sunny morning following three days of rain, but the weather changed as the day wore on. Sheryl Eaves, now assistant principal at Western Rockingham Middle School, remembered remarking to her fellow teachers and band students about the morning's beauty. But as she sat in her room later that afternoon, dark clouds rushed to cover the sun.
"It was just so sudden," Eaves said. "All that day, I remember this kind of ominous feeling. I was sitting in my classroom after the dismissal bell and I noticed it got so dark outside. "
Ten reported tornadoes touched down in North Carolina that day. The strongest began in Stokes County and moved through Rockingham, injuring 27 in addition to the fatalities. In 24 minutes, the storm traveled 12 miles before lifting off the ground west of Eden. The same system spawned a weaker tornado in Henry County, Va., not 10 minutes later.
Unfamiliar territory
North Carolina is not unfamiliar with such storms, but this tornado was unusually strong. Meteorologists rated it on the upper range of an F3, a level usually found in America's plains.
Stephen Keighton, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Blacksburg, Va., said complex layers of conditions produced a tornado that should have been impossible in this terrain.
Though not as mountainous as land to the north, Rockingham County is hillier than areas that typically bear tornados. Tornadoes more often happen in the southern Piedmont, where the warm, moist air that fuels strong thunderstorms isn't pushed away by cool, higher elevations.
"The flatter terrain reduces the friction in the boundary layer of the atmosphere, helping the low-level winds and wind shear to support tornado formation," Keighton wrote in an e-mail. "Not that it can't come together in the mountains, it's just not as likely."
Compare our atmosphere to a river of air. Pockets of warm and cold air collide and push the other aside as the current flows north and west. The sunny March day heated air still moist after days of rain, creating a pool of humidity above western Rockingham County. A warm front from Virginia descending south and cold air pushing up from Georgia butted against moisture here. Heat, cold and moisture reacted in the sky as it does boiling on a stove.
The fronts collided, forming a strong thunderstorm. Hot and cold air scraped past each other, prompting a stormy rotation.
Funnel cloud
Before touching down, a funnel cloud damaged property in the small Stokes County town of Pine Hall. The fellowship hall of Morning Star Baptist Church was hit especially hard -- walls were knocked off the foundation and windows were broken.
Tornadoes typically weaken as they travel. Buildings and forests slow winds as they connect, but the 1998 tornado crossed into Rockingham County with growing speed.
From Pine Hall, the funnel cloud moved toward Madison, mostly across uninhabited land. Twenty minutes after the dismissal bell rang at Western Rockingham Middle School, teachers frantically ushered students waiting for rides home back into the school. Buses were already on the road. Fallen trees had already trapped one bus on N.C. 704.
Eaves was the middle school band teacher. Her observation of quick, dark clouds was her first clue of impending danger. The faculty was told to take cover, and Eaves and her son ducked into the band room and prayed. They huddled there; unsure whether it was safe to leave even after the building stopped shaking.
"No one ever told me that tornadoes couldn't turn and double back," Eaves said. "I was going to stay there until I knew it was gone."
Eaves peeked outside and saw two swirling cones reaching from ground to sky merge into a solid column. The tornado touched down just yards from the school.
A field separated the middle school from Unifi Plant No. 5. Clear, level ground gave the cone a landing strip to rally force before striking the factory. It tore the roof and wall off one of the factory buildings, picking up shingles, scrap metal and debris. Before leveling several houses, it flung a large steel exhaust fan some 300 yards.
A destructive path
The tornado next went to Kingswood Apartments, a small complex across from West Side Baptist on Ayersville Road. The few tenants at home took shelter in bathrooms and closets as wind ripped off roofs, shattered windows and deposited debris inside.
Former tenant Charles Joyner worked at Kobe Wieland Copper in Pine Hall. That Friday seemed ordinary - until the afternoon sky changed.
"All I remember is that we were sitting there in the office and it got black ... pitch black," Joyner said. Joyner was a volunteer firefighter in Mayodan. When his pager went off, he knew it wasn't a fire.
After leaving work, Joyner checked on his children, who were staying with their grandmother on Virginia Street. He heard that the church adjacent to Kingswood was damaged, and he went to take stock of his belongings.
"I left work to go check on my upstairs apartment and, needless to say, when I opened the door to my apartment, there was no roof on it," Joyner said.
Joyner's neighbor, who crawled under a bed when the tornado hit, commented that damage to his apartment could have been worse. Joyner went across the hall and found the storm had taken the neighbor's furnishings. The man told Joyner he survived by clutching a mattress.
"Unifi was right across the road and when I opened the door, physically it didn't look like anything wrong with my apartment. The apartment next to me, the whole back wall was gone," Joyner said. "But when I unlocked the door, there was no roof, but I had probably about 3 or 4 foot of cotton all over my living room and bathroom."
Unlike his neighbor, nothing was missing. Pillows and blankets were undisturbed; plants were still neatly in pots on the counter. Joyner remained in the ruined apartments that night to safeguard belongings.
Shelter after the storm
The National Guard found temporary homes for people, and a curfew kept those with the worst intentions indoors after dark. More than 190 houses were damaged. Miraculously, no one in Mayodan was killed.
Connie Fox, Mayodan United Methodist Church's unofficial historian and a member since childhood, was safely on the other side of town at Frontier Spinning Mills. A warning call answered by the receptionist at the mill was yelled to everyone in earshot. Fox moved to the window.
"What was going through my mind was, there can't be a tornado. This is not tornado country," Fox said. "This little town is between two mountains. This can't be."
But the sight outside confirmed it. A funnel, top-heavy and slanted, was moving through the town center. Fox saw flying debris and knew a tornado formed in an improbable place. She knew it was unusually dangerous.
Employees hid under desks until it was safe. Outside, rain and hail fell after the funnel passed, and the temperature dropped to a biting coolness. Fox said her first reaction was to call her husband. She asked if he and their house were safe. He said yes, but the rest of the town was not so fortunate.
"He said the church is gone," Fox said. "And when he said that, I just lost it."
Fox said her husband watched the tornado move through neighborhoods and the ballfield, rip open the church and slam against the abandoned Elliott Duncan Elementary School.
The next day, Fox prepared herself for the sight of her home church in shambles and drove to town. Streets were still blocked by trucks and debris, so she parked and walked the two blocks to the church, the school building obscuring her view.
"When I got closer to the corner where I was about to come into view, one of my friends turned around and saw me coming," Fox said.
The friend ran to her and offered her arm, saying Fox should not see it alone. They rounded the corner, and Fox spied piles of brick where her church had stood a day before. The top half of the sanctuary was gone. The tornado tore at the fellowship hall, peeling off the roof but leaving the contents intact.
She wept.
That weekend, pastor Doug Miller, parishioners and people living nearby scoured the wreckage, salvaging anything not damaged. Pieces of their spiritual home were collected from the parking lot, nearby yards and the interior of the elementary school. Workers found the brass cross, collection plates, candlesticks and other items from the altar.
A fateful morning
In minutes, the tornado touched down, caused widespread destruction and moved on. The storm traveled past Mayodan's Main Street, down the valley to the Mayo River and over the mountain.
Hills and valleys did not weaken the storm, nor did miles of forests and farmland that lay between Mayodan and U.S. 220. It was here that Hickman, 80, died.
His widow, Allie Mae, now lives with her daughter on a small road off 220 in Stoneville. Fragile and gray, she can recall details of that fateful morning.
"We weren't doing anything special that day," she said. "(Roud) got up and fed the hogs and then he was out with his friends looking for timber to cut. I worked around the house."
Later, Allie Mae said, tornado warnings flashed across the TV and the weather grew violent. Roud, watching from the window, called her over to point out wind that was carrying away objects. The items became heavier as the storm raged. A tree fell outside, and windows of the two-story house burst with the pressure change of the approaching tornado.
Allie Mae said details of what happened next are not clear; she remembers regaining consciousness after the tornado picked the house apart.
Rescue workers found Allie Mae yards from the ruined house.
"'Course they found him dead, 500 feet away," she said.
Aerial photos show a flattened path as wide as a football field across the middle of Stoneville. Trees look like so much trampled grass, and buildings were scattered with debris. Southern Finishing's main office, an old tobacco warehouse, First National Bank and several other structures were heavily damaged. For the second time, the tornado brushed - but it did not hit - a school.
Renee Halpin and 37 students were in the auditorium at a play workshop when a voice announced over the P.A. system, "Renee, get those kids down now."
Halpin said tornado warnings usually began early and were repeated several times, but this was sudden, unexpected and terrifying.
"So, then we just ran to our positions where we were told, and everybody got near a wall," Halpin said. The tornado hit about 3:30 p.m., around the time buses were heading out and parents were waiting in cars outside. Everyone was called back in.
Cowering against the auditorium wall with her students, Halpin became fully aware of her responsibility for the small lives she ordinarily only protected from scrapes and teasing. She was frightened for herself, but she was more afraid for them.
"A lot of them were crying. A lot of them were very scared. And I kept saying, 'It's just a storm, we're going to be OK. It's just a storm, we're going to be OK.' And I don't know if I was trying to convince them of that, or just trying to convince myself of that," Halpin said.
Beth Mitchell
The twister pounded along, following the train tracks to Stoneville's center. Mitchell and her mother, Nancy Lee, had just crossed the tracks when Beth saw the storm hungrily ripping apart the houses of Hampton and Woodlawn streets. Beth stopped the car in front of Claybrook Tire. The funnel was less than a quarter mile away.
"It's a tornado," Beth said, panicked. "What do we do?"
Nancy said later it moved too fast for the car to escape, or to run from the car to safety. She told Beth to curl up in the car's floorboard with her poodle, Onyx. Mother hovered protectively over daughter as the dark funnel approached. Before she lost consciousness, Nancy remembers seeing flying shingles, metal, branches, plastic and other things moving too fast to discern.
Awake again, Nancy saw blood around her. She tried to rouse Beth, shook her and called her name. She looked for an injury that would explain why her daughter was still. She saw more blood.
"It wasn't from her because there wasn't a mark on her," Nancy said. The blood was hers, dripping from a deep gash in her scalp.
It was minutes before someone noticed the car trapped beneath Claybrook's collapsed building and began uncovering it. The uninjured hurried over to help. In a small community where all are either related or close friends, a circle of searchers reeled in horror when they realized Beth and Nancy were in the car.
Emergency workers extracted Nancy and took her to Morehead Memorial Hospital. Doctors discovered the cut caused a life-threatening blood clot, and she was moved to Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. She slipped in and out of consciousness the following days. One thought continually raced through her mind. She must tell her husband, Worth, that Beth didn't make it.
Away from home
Stoneville mayor Rex Tuggle and his wife, Julia, were attending a District Rotary meeting in Myrtle Beach, S.C. They were eating dinner, unaware of the tornado. Fellow guests first asked him about it casually. After the second mention, Tuggle told his wife he had better step outside to check his voicemail. Another guest told him the national news was saying Stoneville had been struck by an unusually strong tornado.
"I went out and checked my messages on my cell phone, and I had like 10 messages," Tuggle said. "Myrtle Beach police, the town manager, National Guard, my mother, my wife's mother, my daughter who ran my antiques store, you know, everybody was looking for us."
He called his daughter at home. Tending shop at Rex and Julia's Antiques on East Main Street that afternoon, she saw the twister approaching. She sheltered in a bathroom - one of the few rooms in the rear of the building that did not collapse. She told him two people were dead and the guts of damaged buildings blocked Henry Street. The National Guard stood guard to protect crippled homes and businesses from looters.
The Tuggles reached Stoneville by midnight, and he dropped her off at home before walking into town. He found rescue workers searching damaged buildings. Power lines were down and blackness hung past the reach of floodlights set up by searchers. People of Stoneville worked all that night, shaken and grieving, numbly searching the rubble.
"People's attitude was we'll never recover. I heard that from a lot of people. Stoneville is gone. We can't fix it," Tuggle said. "And there were others who said we will, we will rebuild. We'll make it better."
In Mayodan, pastors wrote sermons based on God's message of hope during life's darkest moments. In communities between the towns, families sheltered families, and relieved phone calls eased worried minds.
The earth turned on its axis, and healing began with the dawn of March 21, 1998.
Staff writer Heather J. Smith can be reached at hsmith@reidsvillereview.com or 623-2155, ext. 15.
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