'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.