THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 18, 1994 TAG: 9408180495
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: MARTINSVILLE LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
Ellen McInerney's tornado-torn home would fit in better among the war-ravaged homes of Sarajevo, Bosnia, than in suburban Martinsville.
Bark and branches flying as fast as bullets left pockmarks in the brick of the ranch-style house. A log crashed through a window and lay amid the glass shards like a dud mortar. The big ball of aluminum foil in the backyard is really an exploded storage shed.
The tornado arrived at 2:42 a.m. Wednesday and damaged about 100 homes and 30 businesses as it whirled and skipped along a two-mile stretch of southern Henry County.
The storm toppled telephone poles and power lines, causing two industrial parks to close for lack of electricity and giving 932 workers the day off, authorities said. It forced Virginia State Police to close U.S. 220 for seven hours because of debris - primarily the remains of a beauty salon lifted from its foundation and dropped on the northbound lanes at the Martinsville Speedway entrance.
The county declared a state of emergency, but no one was seriously hurt. Ten people suffered minor injuries, only one of whom went to a hospital for treatment, authorities said.
``We were really lucky it hit when it did,'' said Sheriff H.F. Cassell. ``Any time after 8 this morning we really would have had some injuries.''
The storm toppled hundreds of trees, including a dozen or so in McInerney's back yard.
``It's the scariest thing I've ever been in,'' she said. ``I screamed, `It's a tornado!' I jumped in the bathtub, and it was over.''
Across the street from her home, the tornado picked up a 4,800-pound, 24-foot camper from Richard Flippen's driveway, slammed it into the front door, sheared off the top and left it on the roof of the house.
``It rolled like a rubber ball,'' Flippen said. ``We only got to use that trailer one time.''
McInerney's son, Jim, said he was driving to work on U.S. 220 when the tornado lifted his car, spun it around and dropped it in a ditch.
``I thought I was hydroplaning because it was pouring rain. Then I kept going higher'', Jim McInerney said.
``It didn't leave a scratch, but there's a whole bunch of noise coming from the suspension system,'' he said as he pointed to his Ford Tempo.
McInerney said he also saw the tornado pick up a rental truck in front of him several feet in the air before he lost sight of it. County Fire Marshal Steve Eanes said that rescue workers have been unable to locate the driver or the truck, and they assumed he was able to drive away.
The tornado roared for a short time around Anita Williams' house. ``I didn't know whether I was going to live or die,'' she said.
Authorities opened a shelter at Rich Acres Christian Church for people with storm-damaged homes, but they said no one was using it by midafternoon.
The storm that spawned the high winds was associated with Tropical Storm Beryl, which washed over the Southeast on Tuesday, triggering tornados in South Carolina and North Carolina.
Rain produced by soggy remnants of Beryl prompted the National Weather Service to issue a flash flood watch Wednesday for 17 western Virginia counties and a flood warning for parts of the southern Shenandoah Valley, where some streams have spilled over their banks. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS Photo
The early-morning tornado destroyed the beauty shop of Richard
Savedge's wife, Kim, when it swept through Henry County on
Wednesday. The twister was spawned by Tropical Storm Beryl.
KEYWORDS: TORNADO by CNB