Looking Back

jeepinmatt

jeepinmatt

#1 WEBWHEELER
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Stanley, NC
I go on these little research tangents every once in a while about things that I remember or maybe never knew about at all, so I'll post them up here for anyone who cares or finds it interesting, and hopefully others will do the same.

Today's topic is the May 5, 1989 Western NC tornado outbreak, and more specifically the F4 tornado that touched down in the Lawndale-Casar area. I very clearly remember riding through that area as a 5 year old little kid a few days after it happened, and seeing an absolute swath of destruction that is forever burned into my mind.

If you don't read anything else, read the last 4-5 paragraphs of this article (quoted in the next post because apparently theres a 12,000 character post limit on here :rolleyes:):
www.shelbystar.com

The day the sky turned dark: 25 years later

"It got real dark." "I heard the cracking of wood and then one big snap." "Trees were blowing every which way." "I thought it was the end. I thought well, this is what it feels like to die." "It …
www.shelbystar.com




Those stories of a simpler life and a simpler time and people coming together to help out there neighbors and community really speak to me.
giphy.gif


And there's also a certain contrast that shows the division between urban and rural life, even back in 1989:
"It was one of the worst experiences I've ever been through but at the same time it was the best experience - all the neighbors and community that came out and helped clean up. People I knew and didn't know. A Charlotte TV reporter was interviewing me and asked how could I could to hire all these men to help me.
1664894319554.png

I told her, 'These are neighbors. They are working for free.' There were probably 75 to 100 neighbors here."

NWS article with lots of detail on the weather side of it:

Youtube vid with commentary, weather maps and data, pics, and video:


Often there are other little morsels I find along the way that I think are interesting enough to go on a whole nuther tangent. The tornado crossed Acre Rock Road. Hmm, never heard of that, wonder if there is a big exposed rock? Yep:
1664892844508.png
 
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The day the sky turned dark: 25 years later​

Jackie Bridges / Staff Writer


The Star's front page the day after an F4 tornado hit upper Cleveland County, Lincoln County and part of Catawba County.


"It got real dark."
"I heard the cracking of wood and then one big snap."
"Trees were blowing every which way."
"I thought it was the end. I thought well, this is what it feels like to die."
"It busted up into two big black things, two funnels and one hit us."
Eyewitnesses gave these descriptions of the F4 tornado that touched down in the Lawndale area May 5, 1989. Their pictures and stories were published in The Star May 13, 1989, in a special section sold to raise money to aid clean up efforts.
The tornado that hit Cleveland County that day was part of one of the worst outbreaks in the history of the western Carolinas, meteorologist Justin Lane, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Greenville-Spartanburg, S.C., recently said.

"While only seven tornadoes were reported across the area during the outbreak, three were rated F4 in intensity," Lane said in his report published on the NWS website. "This number of violent tornadoes is unprecedented for a single outbreak affecting the region since official records began in 1950."
'Always underneath the surface'
Survivor Glenda Miller said once you've witnessed the fury of Mother Nature, you are never the same.

"It's always underneath the surface," she said. "Somebody asks, 'Are you OK?' and you fall completely apart."
Those helpless feelings hit Miller again this week as Cleveland County was under storm watches and warnings. She called her veterinarian, and the person who answered said she had been on everyone's mind.
"I thought how nice they were thinking of me. It never dawned on me they were talking about the storms until they brought it up," she said. "After that, I crumbled like a piece of paper. I've been tense all day. My shoulders hurt and my head hurts. I'm not afraid, but I'm trying to be cautious and prepared."


In 1989, Miller and her family lived through the hurricane, but the home they had spent nine years restoring was gone in a matter of minutes. She and her two children, ex-husband and her grandmother survived. They were huddled in the hallway of the home that didn't have a basement.
"It sounded like bulldozers pushing the house," she said. "When the house went, we all went. I had my children in my arms, and I lost them. I was flying through the air. It was cold and felt like sand pricking your skin."
They had been moved 350 feet from the house. She found her son underneath some boards. Her daughter's legs were twisted up in some other boards, and her grandmother was lying under a beam.
She rebuilt her home on the land that had been in her family - the Bingham family - since 1804. She also built a store there: Red Bone Willy's.
'Chills ran over me'
As his airplane flew over upper Cleveland County surveying the damage on the morning of May 6, 1989, Civil Air Patrol pilot Tom P. Bridges was shocked at the scene below.
"When I saw the path of the tornado, chills ran over me," Bridges recalled last week. "It looked like a big tire had rolled down all the trees."
Bridges and other members of the Civil Air Patrol flight crew, Gene Meade, Ed Spangler and Ronnie Hawkins, photographed the damage in 1989. Their photos made it possible for residents to receive aid quicker, Bridges said.

"They wanted us to fly the photos to Raleigh so they could get federal aid," Bridges said. "We had to fly through the line of thunderstorms."
Recently, in preparation for the 25th anniversary of the devastating event, Meade flew back over the Belwood area. Most everyone who lost their homes has rebuilt, Meade said.
"I'm glad we kept the photos from 1989 and could come back and see the changes," he said.
'It was devastating'
On his way to photograph the Belwood area in 1989, Meade said he didn't know what to expect.
"It was devastating," he said. "We got to Delight Road and saw the fields blown down and then we saw the Whites' house destroyed."
Carl and Corine White were pulled out of the rubble of their home on Mauney Road, between Lawndale and Casar.
In 1989, Polkville Fire Chief J.B. Blanton told The Star, "I can't believe it'd tear up a house like this. I was really surprised to find them alive."
In all, The Star reported that 30 people were treated at Cleveland Regional Medical Center and four lost their lives: Betty Jean Hoffman McNeely, 57; her husband, Dock McNeely Jr., 62; Ronald Singleton, 50; and Jacob Bert Sain, 82.
Volunteers poured in from everywhere to help the people who had lost their homes, and donations were collected and distributed through churches and other agencies. Elizabeth Williams, a survivor who lost her home, said volunteers came on the weekends to help them rebuild.

"I thank the Lord again every day for the friends who helped us," she said.
1989 tornado by the numbers
One-half mile - the diameter of the tornado at its maximum size
2 churches destroyed: Bingham Memorial Evangelical Methodist in Lincoln County and Pine Grove Primitive Baptist on the Lawndale-Casar Road
4 fatalities
50 injuries
6:55 p.m. - time initial calls came into Emergency Management (Note: the 911 system was not in operation then. On a recording of the calls, the dispatcher asks the caller for directions to the house.)
12 homes with minor damage
15 home totally destroyed (5 extensively)
1,200 number of Duke customers without power
$10 million - amount of damage (adjusted to 2013 dollars) in Cleveland, northwest Lincoln, and southwest Catawba counties
$40 million - the amount of damage (adjusted to 2012 dollars) from all seven tornadoes that hit Greenville, S.C., Spartanburg, S.C., Cherokee County, S.C., Cleveland County, Lincoln County and southwest Catawba County
<EDITED OUT DUE TO NC4x4 12,000 character limit WTF>
SURVIVOR MEMORIES
Survivors of the 1989 tornado shared their memories with The Star recently:
'People circle around you'
Julia Palmer
Mrs. Palmer's family established the Carl Carpenter Award in 2011 to honor Carpenter, who searched 10 years for the owner of a photograph he found after the tornado in 1989. His simple act of kindness to return the photo changed Mrs. Palmer’s outlook on life and also started a chain reaction of good deeds. Carpenter died in March 2012. The award is presented monthly to recognize people who are helping and inspiring others in the community. She was home alone on the day of the tornado. She remembers going to shut the door and being thrown back. When she came to, the house was gone, and she was lying on the ground. She crawled to her car and begin blowing the horn to attract attention. She suffered a crushed pelvis, broken shoulder, broken ribs, shattered leg and wounds from glass.

"It's so hard to thank everyone who made a difference in the days after the tornado," Mrs. Palmer said. "That is what we try to do every month by remembering Carl and recognizing acts of kindness. Two people came to my rescue that day: Linda Willis and Tommy Spurling. I'm not so sure I would be alive without them. People do really come out and make a wonderful circle around you and without that I don't know how you get through. Millions of items came in from all over the United States."
'Worst experience ... best experience'
John Elmore
Elmore and his wife, Sandy, had two children, who were 6 and 2 at the time. Their log home, built in 1984 on the Lawndale-Casar Road was destroyed. He ordered another log home kit and rebuilt his home in eight weeks and two days.
"It was a normal day, we sat down to supper. There was no rain, but the sky was an odd color. I was looking out across the horizon and I saw about eight rain shoots. They formed into a tornado and I saw it pick up Carl White's house and destroy it. We got the kids and went to the basement. I put them under a reloading table. When we all got up the house was gone. It took three walls of the basement. The wall we were under did not collapse. They found logs in Toluca up 18 - about 8 miles away. Twenty-five miles away in Winston-Salem, a man found one of my canceled checks in his front yard. It was one of the worst experiences I've ever been through but at the same time it was the best experience - all the neighbors and community that came out and helped clean up. People I knew and didn't know. A Charlotte TV reporter was interviewing me and asked how could I could to hire all these men to help me. I told her, 'These are neighbors. They are working for free.' There were probably 75 to 100 neighbors here."
'It looked like a war zone'
Elizabeth Williams
Elizabeth Williams and her late husband, Robert L. Williams, lost the two-story pre-Civil war era colonial home they had restored. They were at the home on Queen Road in Belwood. Their son was at a District Boy Scout Camporee on N.C. 226 near Polkville. The Scouts experienced high winds during the storm, but all were fine. The couple rebuilt their home using the Poplar trees that had been downed by the tornado. Her husband sawed every log and volunteers came from everywhere to help.

"I heard a sound like an airplane. The noise became so loud that it frightened me. I yelled for my husband ... He told me to get in the house, 'I think we are having a tornado.' We started to the basement and the power went off. We could feel the pressure on our shoulders. Everything got deathly quiet and we decided to inch our way back up. We didn't dream that our house was gone. He opened the door to go into what would have been our den and he said, 'Well I'm outside.' The clocks were stopped at 7:02. We sat down on a log where the front door of the house had been, about 15 to 20 minutes we sat there and cried a little bit. It looked like a war zone with trees down everywhere. We said a prayer, hugged each other and said, 'Let's get to work.' We could see the mountains and Psalm 121:1-2 came to mind: 'I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.' It thank the Lord again every day for the friends who helped us."
'Hope for the best'
Tom Spurling
Tom and Marsha Spurling live in the same home on St. Peter's Church Road where the tornado brushed by in 1989.
"I was coming through the back yard when I looked out West. It looked strange. It was black as it could be and I knew something wasn't right. I was seeing a group of white looking clouds on the right-hand side and then it switched to the left. There was something odd about the color of the sky. We live in a long brick ranch house and have a long hallway in the middle of the house. We got under the blankets, prayed and hoped for the best. We could hear the freight train, as everyone says. Afterward I was hearing the car horn and I looked in the direction of the Palmer's house and saw it was gone. I told my wife, we need to go see what is going on. She (Julia Palmer) had been blown into the field and had crawled back to the car. My wife is a nurse and we made a tourniquet out of a T-shirt and called the rescue. It was a traumatic time. The community came together. The Scouts who were camping came back the next day and started clearing the wood."
 
Reminds me of 25 April, 1994. The town I grew up in, lived there til '99. It got leveled that night (at least parts of it), and hugely historic parts of it. Historic, such as a bank that once was robbed by Bonnie and Clyde.

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1664903121102.png


When the sirens started going off and the tv news cut in to say how bad it was getting, I remember going out on the front porch to look towards town. I saw nothing but a black wall hanging out of the sky between the lightening strikes and transformers exploding. Promptly took my ass back inside and my mom, brother and I were crouched down in the hall. I seriously thought we were going to go for a ride. The next morning, all was still standing on our property, but we had roofs and living room furniture scattered around our property, trees down everywhere. It was hell.

And just as you said, neighbors that actually teamed up to clean up and get one another back up on their feet. People's whose homes were destroyed found refuge at other neighbors houses... Those were the good old days.
 
I was cruising Stratford Rd in Winston in my 74 CJ5 with a 304 and 3 speed (bad idea for a 17 yr old) with my 2 best friends when hugo came thru.

We didn't have cell phones. And none of our parents watched the news religiously.

It started raining like hell. With 3 teenagers in a soft top jeep without AC or defrost, at night, we had all taken off our shirts and started wiping down windows to see. Then the trees started dropping across the roads . We got out and locked the front hubs and crawled over at least a dozen trees. We managed to make it back to scooters house and I called mom and told her I was alive. There were so many trees down between scooters house and mine (5miles) that I had to stay with him for 3 days. But in those 3 days we were out of school, we broke out the chainsaws and jumped in the back of Kevin's 69 long bed Chevy and drove around making money cutting up trees for people.

I'll never forget that. As I lived in a trailer and there was NO damage whatsoever in my neighborhood but everywhere around us had trees fall on their roads or homes. Here mom and I lived in the most vulnerable home around and we were untouched, and I was out making money with buds off folks in big ass homes that were trapped in their homes or looking at all kinds of damages to their homes
 
Me and my wife (then girlfriend) were sitting at the intersection of North Point and University in Winston Salem in the same Samurai I still own.
It got real breezy .... then the wind went from 10 mph to gawd-awful.
Everything went black and the wind pushed us through the intersection with my foot on the brake.
We turned around and made it to my house in Stanleyville and my parents looked at us like we were stupid!
 
I remember May 5, 1989 very well, I was working at Hardee's in Hickory. The big windows were flexing big time, I have no idea why none of them broke. Many customers were stuck in the building for the duration. Have to admit, it was scary! The next day I was to travel to Shelby to watch my brother graduate, It took me a while to find open roads. Down 18 and 27 it looked like a train wreck, worst destruction I had ever seen.I made it to his graduation just minutes before his name was called.
 
Anybody else remember the major mountain flooding of 2004? It of coursed got glossed over in the news, but was a pretty dang big deal in the local area and even downstream. There was huge devastation in a couple areas that I visited regularly, so I felt the impact more than a normal flatlander. Curtis Creek road was closed for what seemed like a couple years as a result, and the Linville River trail in Linville Gorge was never the same due to the massive flooding. To give a little context to the volume of flooding, a typical day in the Linville River is around 200cfs (cubic feet per second). A major rain will bring that flow up into the couple thousands. A massive rain that lasts for an extended period might cause it to peak around 10000cfs. But according to the historical data of the USGS flow gauge on the Linville river, there were 2 events in in September of 2004 that resulted in excess of 20000cfs . The proportions of this rainfall were unprecedented, and exceeded the 20k design limit of the gauge, but is estimated to be around 28000cfs!

Here's the past 3 years:
1691682968011.png



And here is September 2004 :eek:
1691683019944.png



Pretty amazing, and amazingly damaging to everything in its path. I took a backpacking trip through Linville Gorge in December of 2004, and there were piles of debris larger than a million dollar 5 million dollar house. I'll have to see if I can dig up any pictures. This was pre cell phone cams, and digital cameras were in their infancy still.

Here's a really good writeup on it, and a few pictures from that article:

A Tropical Trio in September 2004 Tested the Mountain Terrain - North Carolina State Climate Office

This is the fifth post in our "Stormy Summer" series looking back at some memorable hurricane anniversaries occurring in 2019. Long after their hurricane-force winds had worn off and they left Florida in varying degrees of disrepair, three storms in September 2004 moved up the east coast and...
climate.ncsu.edu climate.ncsu.edu
1691684451591.png

1691684473431.png



Another good read with a ton of pics:
www.citizen-times.com

WNC flooding in 2004

www.citizen-times.com
1691684801230.png


1691684852536.png




And one more worthwhile article on the topic, with some more personal anecdotes:
smokymountainnews.com

2004: Floods ravage Western North Carolina

The tiny central Haywood County town of Clyde lies more than 270 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, more than 400 miles from the Gulf of Mexico and more than 2,500 feet above both of them, so it must have seemed like a cruel joke when back-to-back hurricanes over the course of about a week caused...
smokymountainnews.com
"Around dinnertime on Sept. 7, workers at Blue Ridge Paper in Canton silenced the mill’s mighty smokestacks for the first time in 99 years. Students and parents at downtown Canton’s Bethel Christian Academy helped move belongings to higher shelving, and laid down sandbags that would do little to stem the 14 feet of water that eventually flooded the school."

Coincidentally, my dad and I were leading a previously planned motorcycle tour around the greater western NC area in the days following this flood. The base for our trips was centered around lodging and Biltmore, and saw the Biltmore entrance flooding firsthand, and were detoured around areas of the Biltmore property that I didn't even know existed. The next couple of days led us through curvy backroads and massive devastation, from as far west as Murphy (gotta hit Deals Gap/The Dragon) all the way north and east to Boone/Blowing Rock. It was still very fresh and new, and you never knew what road conditions might be around the next curve, or if there would even be a road there. It was truly shocking and humbling, and I will carry those raw memories for the rest of my life.
 
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And all the reading on that led me to read about the Peeks Creek Debris Flow, which I had never even heard of:

Peeks-Creek-Debris-Flow-2004 | NC DEQ

Peeks Creek Debris Flow, 2004 This section provides an overview of the Peeks Creek Debris Flow at Macon County, North Carolina in September 2004. Five people
www.deq.nc.gov www.deq.nc.gov

15 homes were destroyed, and 5 people lost their lives, with 2 more being seriously injured. The landslide started at the top of Fishhawk Mountain, and reached speeds of over 30mph!
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1691685658368.png

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"As naturally occurs when a mass of suspended material slows down and spreads, the largest debris continued straight forward, depositing much of the load into a natural "island." The contents of the mound were incredible: car-sized boulders, entire trees with roots still attached, sticks and a lot of soil. It is not known how dense the foliage was prior to the flow reaching this area, but now the cleared area is between 500 and 1000 feet across."

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Interestingly enough, this debris flow uncovered evidence that this was not the first time such a thing had happened in this exact area:
1691685920405.png
 
I remember plowing snow and cutting almost 1000 trees that had fallen across the roads during the blizzard of 93. I also remember doing it all over again for the two hurricanes in 2004. We hauled over 1500 loads of brush. It took months of cutting trees and brush and no one can believe this but we hand raked the road shoulders for miles. We would cut and drag the brush onto the road and then push it up with a front end loader, load it, and haul it away. During the blizzard, I happened to be plowing a section of road when the wind decided to start blowing the huge pine trees down in front of me. They were falling in front and behind me so I just hit the accelerator. Lost the top of the snow plow and broke some glass but survived. Scary stuff.
 
thebrotherinlaw said:
I remember plowing snow and cutting almost 1000 trees that had fallen across the roads during the blizzard of 93. I also remember doing it all over again for the two hurricanes in 2004. We hauled over 1500 loads of brush. It took months of cutting trees and brush and no one can believe this but we hand raked the road shoulders for miles. We would cut and drag the brush onto the road and then push it up with a front end loader, load it, and haul it away. During the blizzard, I happened to be plowing a section of road when the wind decided to start blowing the huge pine trees down in front of me. They were falling in front and behind me so I just hit the accelerator. Lost the top of the snow plow and broke some glass but survived. Scary stuff.
Click to expand...
In 2004, @thebrotherinlaw and my sister, as well as my parents and myself all lived on the same rural driveway (3 separate homes). A very small creek, 4' wide and usually 8" deep, ran parallel between his house and mine. When the 3rd Hurricane in weeks came through, you could visibly watch that little creek rising rapidly. It grew to almost 100' wide and probably 8' deep at the deepest. We got mom and dad across the bridge, Austin and my sister's house nearly washed away and my garage flooded about 2' deep.
It was insane.
 
I don't remember the flooding (too much other stuff my 20yo self was worried about) but we've talked about it a lot in our FD training. I've seen plenty of pics from responders that were went from our area to help.

Duane
 
jeepinmatt said:
I go on these little research tangents every once in a while about things that I remember or maybe never knew about at all, so I'll post them up here for anyone who cares or finds it interesting, and hopefully others will do the same.

Today's topic is the May 5, 1989 Western NC tornado outbreak, and more specifically the F4 tornado that touched down in the Lawndale-Casar area. I very clearly remember riding through that area as a 5 year old little kid a few days after it happened, and seeing an absolute swath of destruction that is forever burned into my mind.

If you don't read anything else, read the last 4-5 paragraphs of this article (quoted in the next post because apparently theres a 12,000 character post limit on here :rolleyes:):
www.shelbystar.com

The day the sky turned dark: 25 years later

"It got real dark." "I heard the cracking of wood and then one big snap." "Trees were blowing every which way." "I thought it was the end. I thought well, this is what it feels like to die." "It …
www.shelbystar.com




Those stories of a simpler life and a simpler time and people coming together to help out there neighbors and community really speak to me.
View attachment 382123

And there's also a certain contrast that shows the division between urban and rural life, even back in 1989:
"It was one of the worst experiences I've ever been through but at the same time it was the best experience - all the neighbors and community that came out and helped clean up. People I knew and didn't know. A Charlotte TV reporter was interviewing me and asked how could I could to hire all these men to help me.
View attachment 382124
I told her, 'These are neighbors. They are working for free.' There were probably 75 to 100 neighbors here."

NWS article with lots of detail on the weather side of it:

Youtube vid with commentary, weather maps and data, pics, and video:


Often there are other little morsels I find along the way that I think are interesting enough to go on a whole nuther tangent. The tornado crossed Acre Rock Road. Hmm, never heard of that, wonder if there is a big exposed rock? Yep:
View attachment 382122
Click to expand...

Wow that’s some good history. Funny enough, last week I passed acre rock rd and the Toluca community when I went to the Knob creek farm. Probably 1/2 mile from them.
 
Welp, @Andy J.'s Pilot thread sent me down a rabbit hole that I either didn't know about, or didn't understand the significance of....
Noel said:
I mean that airport worker out in Cali flew a huge passenger plane. Completed a barrel roll and all with zero experience just video games. But he never made it back on the ground, atleast safely.
Click to expand...

StretchASU said:
Close...it was Seattle.

www.teepublic.com

Fly It Like You Stole It - Richard Russell, Sky King, 2018 Horizon Air Q400 Incident by spacedoglaika

"I wasn't really planning on landing." Just a broken guy, got a few screws loose I guess. Fly on, sky king.
www.teepublic.com www.teepublic.com
Click to expand...
en.wikipedia.org

2018 Horizon Air Q400 incident - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
TL: DR Dude with no professional training stole a commercial plane, broke in line on the runway, successfully took off, cruised around for over an hour looking at the sights of the Pacific Northwest, got escorted by some F15's, did a barrel roll, said he was sorry, and nosedived into an island. Hurt noone except himself.

Short edited version:



Longer more detailed version:


Fascinating stuff. Should be up there with Killdozer in fame/infamy depending on how you look at it.
 
jeepinmatt said:
Fascinating stuff. Should be up there with Killdozer in fame/infamy depending on how you look at it.
Click to expand...
Had he flown a plane with a nuke into Capital Hill during a critical vote where ALL members were there AND pres and VP then I would agree while heartedly
 
CasterTroy said:
Had he flown a plane with a nuke into Capital Hill during a critical vote where ALL members were there AND pres and VP then I would agree while heartedly
Click to expand...
I laugh so I stay off the lists.
 
skyhighZJ said:
Weak
Click to expand...
Yes, I am very weak, trust the government, and harbor no ill will to those who blatantly and repeatedly violate the constitution without consequence or accountability.
 
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