Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, December 25, 1994 TAG: 9412270101
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MARTINSVILLE LENGTH: Medium
There, stripped across the front page of newspapers and leading the television news, was the top half of Kim Savedge's beauty shop lying in the middle of U.S. 220 just outside Martinsville.
A tornado tore through Henry County in August, and Kim's Kut & Kurl got in its way. The shop was left in a pile of rubble, except for two walls and a few pictures the tornado decided to leave hanging on them.
Savedge's shop sat beside the home of her parents, Orbreyn and Barbara Williams, on Speedway Road just outside the Martinsville city limits. Savedge and her husband also live on the road, as do some other Williams family members.
The road - which leads into the Martinsville Speedway - was in one of the areas hardest hit by the early morning twister that did close to $10million in damage in Henry County.
Several of the Williamses' homes suffered damage from the storm, but Kim's Kut & Kurl was leveled.
Savedge had cut hair at the shop for a decade.
Just a few hours after the tornado picked up the top section of the salon and dropped it on U.S. 220 a couple of hundred feet away, Orbreyn Williams declared that he would see to it that his daughter's place of business was rebuilt.
And Savedge said last week that she plans to reopen in January.
``It's been tough,'' she said. ``So many people were hit by tornado damage that my shop kind of came last on the totem pole.''
But Savedge said family members have been working on their own to rebuild the salon whenever they can find some spare time and some spare materials.
Savedge said she's looking forward to going back to work, something she hasn't done since the Aug. 17 storm.
Asked if she can do without tornados for a while, Savedge chuckled.
by CNB