Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 19, 1994 TAG: 9408190091
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RIDGEWAY LENGTH: Medium
The eerie roar of a tornado was replaced by the whining buzz of chain saws Thursday as Henry County residents cleaned up after Wednesday morning's twister.
Neighbors and volunteers worked together and huddled in groups to talk about the storm.
Henry Oliver, who lives near the Martinsville Speedway, watched Thursday afternoon as two wreckers pulled his family camper off of his 1993 Nissan Sentra.
The tornado picked the camper - weighing several thousand pounds - off the ground and slammed it into the back of the car with such force that a shaving cream can inside the camper was found wedged in its roof.
Oliver was tired but in good spirits. He said the extent of the damage the tornado left in his yard started to sink in after all the media and visitors left Wednesday night.
"I've got more than I can do,'' he said. Oliver's grandson, Craig Puryear, traveled up from Charleston, S.C., to help clean up.
"It's the aftermath,'' he said. "Mother Nature don't play.''
Puryear should know. He was huddled in the corner of his Charleston apartment in September of 1989 when Hurricane Hugo ripped through the city. Wednesday's twister "was nothing like Hugo,'' he said. "Hugo leveled everything in its path.''
But the damage in Henry County had some wondering if more than one twister had hit.
Tom Collins lives off U.S. 220 near the U.S. 58 bypass. He said he heard one tornado come by his house - "it sounded like a heartbeat,'' he said - and then heard what he thought was another twister to the south. "It was either two of 'em, or the first one turned around and came back,'' Collins said.
All indications show that only one tornado touched down in Henry County, according to Donato Cacciapaglia of the National Weather Service in Roanoke.
''You get these cyclonic winds, and everything gets sprayed around,'' he said.
Things were beginning to return to normal Thursday. Henry County Fire Marshal Steve Eanes said a state of emergency was lifted at 1:30 p.m. Thursday. "There are no hazards out there,'' he said. "We were really lucky.''
Eanes said damage reports will be completed today and filed with the state Department of Emergency Services. The availability of state and federal assistance has not been determined, he said. "It all depends on what's insured and what's not."
The estimated damage total remained at $10 million, Eanes said. The tornado hit 59 homes and 13 businesses.
Mary DePuy, director of the local chapter of the American Red Cross, said close to 600 meals were prepared for people who needed food Wednesday and Thursday. She said power had been restored, though, and the Red Cross was beginning to scale back its efforts.
But while the cleanup will remove a lot of the debris, the memories will remain.
Donnie Hedgecock, who lives near Henry Oliver, said he got down on the floor and started praying when he heard the twister.
"I thought World War III was here,'' he said. "[The tornado] sucked my bedsheets out the window, and my hair was standing on end.''
by CNB