A North Carolina mother is thankful after she found her six-year-old daughter safe and unharmed under rubble following a tornado that destroyed their home.
On Monday, a tornado swept through a neighborhood in the northeastern part of the state, leaving behind a trail of destruction and sending many people to the hospital with various injuries. Officials with the Perquimans County Emergency Operations Center confirmed that the tornado damaged 13 mobile homes at Longview Estates Mobile Home Park.
Tornado Levels Homes in North Carolina
Emergency responders also stayed in the area throughout the morning to assess injuries to individuals as well as property damage. Officials said that as of Monday evening, three of the homes were completely destroyed by the tornado.
One resident of the area, Ty Wood, who has lived in one of those homes for about two decades, said that the recent tornado lifted him from inside his home and tossed him outside. He then tried to seek refuge inside his car until the disaster passed, according to 11Alive.
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While Wood lost the property that he had been living in for nearly 20 years, he was still thankful to be alive after the disaster and without any significant injuries. Officials also reported that the tornado injured eight people, three of which were transferred to the hospital to get treated.
Shortly after 3:00 a.m. on Monday, the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for Camden, Pasquotank, Currituck, and Perquimans counties. Officials warned residents that there was a severe thunderstorm with the potential to produce a tornado moving northeast at 50 mph near Elizabeth City.
Leaving a Trail of Destruction
Residents of Perquimans County struggled to come to terms with the damage the tornado left on their homes, with many families waking up to see their residences no longer there. One resident of Longview Estates, Laquasia Hughes, and her six-year-old daughter were inside their home at the time the tornado struck, 13NewsNow reported.
The mother recalled the moment that the tornado ripped through their home, which made her feel like it was "Dorothy off The Wizard of Oz." Fortunately, Hughes' daughter was safe and remained unharmed after she was stuck under the rubble of their home.
Another resident, Jerrod Grace, was inside one of the leveled homes as the storm passed and later found his pickup truck buried underneath the rubble and debris from the home. A neighbor said that they could hear people asking for help, with one saying that a child was stuck in the house, as per News19.
