As a look out the window and see two Osprey hard at work rebuilding their half destroyed nest I am glad they survived and how lucky we all were just 36 hours ago – they seem quite content as they now have an unlimited supply of building material nearby. I decided this was the best time to put to paper the events while still fresh at mind. With the gale force winds Saturday’s day of sailboat racing was cancelled so the Double Eagle crew went different ways with Sam and Carey Mitchener and Carrie Russell having a shrimp and crab cake dinner at my house. With the high winds and statewide threat of Tornadoes the conversation turned to what to do if a tornado should come. With a ground level house there is no place to go so we decided the best place to go would be the interior cinderblock wall of the garage.

As we were finishing dinner with Carey in the kitchen and me at the kitchen counter behind the French doors getting a second helping of first garden salad of the year Carrie looked out the window over the water and saw the last rays of the sun illuminating a white donut shaped cloud. Suddenly realizing what it was she shouted “tornado” as she jumped up to get behind a nearby wall. Hearing her shout and being conditioned from our conversation earlier I yelled “ In the garage –NOW” and headed 10 feet for the garage door as I was closest. Carrie was right with me as I headed down the three stairs to the garage floor with Carey right behind at the top of the steps. Our feet had just taken a few steps on the floor when Sam who had the farthest to go at 50 feet reached the open doorway and then it hit. The kitchen French door unit was blown completely from its frame and the resultant rush of air slammed the garage door into Sam’s back propelling him into Carey with both ended up 15 feet away on the floor under my car bumper. From Carrie’s warning to Sam’s flight was probably 10-15 seconds. All I remember was total darkness as the power failed as we went down the steps. I vaguely remember the noise but the others said it was like being between two passing trains. Thirty seconds later it was over and we emerged as light appeared from the outside.

The kitchen door unit smashed into and dislocated the counters before ending up in the kitchen floor. The rush of air continued thru the living room where it piled the furniture into the corner before entering the hall and blowing the front door unit and attached window out of the house. We later found the entire unit smashed into a tree 150 feet away. The carving knives were sucked out of the knife block which was undisturbed and flung into the living room. The kitchen stools and rug made it all the way thru the house and ended up 50 feet into the yard. The shrimp were on the shelves of the bookcase and the strawberries the fireplace. Glass was everywhere suck into furniture ,drywall and wedged under floor moldings. All the windows on the water side were shattered and the frames twisted. The shingles too were almost gone on the water side. On the land side in addition to the blown out front door the walls of the two adjacent rooms were blow out 2 to 6 inches thus all will have to come down and be rebuilt as the same for three of the water side walls. The water side is going to be reinforced and rebuilt with 6” studs, extra bracing and tempered laminated safety glass. Every room in the house sustained drywall damage as the house shifted and recovered to normal so it is patching all drywall screw holes, re-taping seams and a total repaint of the interior is required. The exterior siding, gutters and trim have holes and dents so it all will have to come off and be replaced. The A/C unit took a short flight before being arrested by the Freon lines. The four cars parked in the driveway all sustained damage. The 300 gallon propane tank was rolled on its side and hissing with a leak until I turned the valve – later we found that the underground line had been fractured by the roll or one of the many trees impacting the area. Almost all of the large trees in my yard and my neighbors were snapped off twenty or so feet into the air and many scrubs were uprooted and pulled from the ground. My 5 to 10 years dream plans for improvements to the house will now all occur in the next 6 months with financial help from the insurance and next fall we will have a hell of an open house party at “Tornado Landing”.

As we started to get over the shock and seeing that the house in such a mess we decided to leave and found two of the cars had windows blown and headed to the Yacht Club to try to figure out what to do and I consumed two double Mount Gay’s. As the county Sheriff was securing the area and only allowing people to leave Carrie, Carey and Sam headed to Richmond and I back to the house to spend the night in the one relatively undamaged room. The next morning Carrie, Carey and Sam awoke early and headed back to Deltaville and arrived before the Sheriff imposed a curfew so they plus the rest of Double Eagle’s crew and other friends arrive so soon I had a dozen people sweeping and carting trash while I repaired ethanol damaged fuel line on the generator. With the generator running we soon had water and three vacuums running cleaning up the glass with the 20 gallon Rigid shop vac the most useful. It is amazing what a dozen friends can do and I am so appreciative for all the help.

Two hours this hit I was at the Yacht Club where I started the sailors traditional start of the season with the “Blessing of the Fleet” where we ask the Lord to look after those facing perils on the Sea and Doug Anderson must have said it all right as someone almighty had to be looking after us for us all to have survived.

Mayo Tabb

More Pictures in the FBYC Tornado Set