Tornado Kills at Least 7 in N.C.
Pastor Dale Morgan
Tornado Kills at Least 7 in N.C.*
Thursday November 16, 2006 9:01 PM
By ESTES THOMPSON
Associated Press Writer
RIEGELWOOD, N.C. (AP) - A tornado flipped cars, shredded trees and
ripped mobile homes to pieces in this little riverside community early
Thursday, killing at least seven people, authorities said.
The disaster raised the two-day death toll from a devastating line of
thunderstorms that swept across the South to 11.
Rescue workers using heavy equipment to search for bodies cautioned that
the death toll could rise. Gov. Mike Easley said authorities had yet to
account for four people, while hospital officials said at least five
people, including four children, were in critical condition.
``It almost looked like the mobile homes had exploded,'' said Alton
Edwards, a member of a volunteer fire-and-rescue team. ``There were cars
on top of one another. It's just about as bad as it gets.''
The storms that began Wednesday unleashed tornadoes and straight-line
winds that overturned mobile homes and tractor-trailers, uprooted trees
and knocked down power lines across the South.
In Louisiana, a man died Wednesday when a tornado struck his home. In
South Carolina, a utility worker checking power lines Thursday during
the storm was electrocuted. In North Carolina, two people died in car
crashes as heavy rain pounded the state, dropping as much as five inches
in some areas.
Off the coast, a Coast Guard helicopter lowered a pump to a fishing boat
that was taking on water in 15-foot seas about 50 miles from Charleston.
One crewman was aboard the 34-foot boat, which the Coast Guard escorted
back to land.
The tornado that struck Riegelwood - situated on the Cape Fear River
about 20 miles west of Wilmington - hit shortly after 6:30 a.m. As many
as 40 mobile homes were damaged before the tornado crossed a highway and
leveled three brick homes. Some of the dead were believed to be children.
Household debris, including carpet and a laundry basket, was scattered
along a road. The storm dumped a minivan in a ditch, and an open
refrigerator that still had food inside was filled with rainwater.
Clevette Brown, 42, said the tornado looked like ``a string hanging down
with debris coming out.''
Searchers had found seven bodies in the wreckage by midday, and ``that
number very well may go up,'' said County Commissioner Chairman Kip Godwin.
Commissioner Sammie Jacobs said four to five mobile homes were
demolished, and there were ``houses on top of cars and cars on top of
houses.''
``We've stepped across bodies to get to debris and search for other
bodies here this morning,'' Jacobs said.
The storm knocked out power to 45,000 customers in North Carolina. But
the electricity was back on in most places by mid-afternoon.