Tornado Damages Small North Carolina Town of Claremont

On the night of October 26^th 2010 a tornado touched down in Claremont North Carolina doing damage to property including a cemetery. No injuries were reported after a tornado made it's way down Highway 70 in Claremont, which is the main street of the small North Carolina town.

The tornado did damage to several homes and businesses in Claremont including flipping several tractor trailer trucks onto their sides. Some of the businesses damaged included Draca Compact, Hickory Springs and the building that formerly contained Claremont Wholesale as well as Mom& Pops and Pierre Foods.

Particularly disturbing to residents of Claremont was the damage done to the cemetery in front of Mom& Pops which belongs to Saint Marks Lutheran Church. Several heavy headstones were flipped over by the tornado.

This was really stressful to me as my four year old daughter was buried there when she passed away in 2002. I was out of town attending my brother Christopher Wyatt McCullough's funeral when I heard about the storm and the damage to the cemetery. It was late on the 27^th before my fiancée could get to the cemetery to confirm that my daughter's grave was undamaged. Even the little ceramic angels and a vase in front of her headstone were undisturbed.

The cemetery looked really sad today with all the stones down. One man was trying to set them up by himself as his wife told him not to for fear he'd hurt himself. They were looking for her Aunts headstone which amazingly enough was in place just moved forward some but the angel and flowers on it hadn't moved. There was a headstone that was broke but wasn't laying on the grave. I'm not sure if the storm took it or if the owners took it to be fixed but it was a sad thing to see it gone.

I'm hoping that if the people or family of the headstones has some kind of insurance for things like this or if not that the church will help them fix it.

Claremont was not the only North Carolina town damaged by tornados or other storm related incidents. Vale North Carolina also had significant damage during the storm which was part of as major front that nailed parts of North Carolina for two days.

A couple I met Mike and Angie who had just moved into their house were really upset about the storm. Angie who was making payments on a car she was buying really was upset when the car was totaled by a tree but was still left owing payments. She said she would recommend for anyone buying a car to get gap insurance so they're not left owing money like she is.

Their front porch was really messed up one of the pillars was sitting in the yard. They got it out of the yard to try and prop the porch up all the way and so FEMA could see the address.

The people in Claremont are grateful there were no injuries or worse and are already doing some major cleanup of the area. Several people have mentioned that they are saddened by the loss of a huge tree that was over 100 years old and had weathered many storms over its lifetime. We will repair and rebuild in Claremont but you can't replace a grand old tree like that.

As far as I know all the streets in Claremont have been reopened and we saw many people checking on graves and looking at the other storm damage. This article contains photos of the tornado damage in Claremont North Carolina and I will also be adding a photo slide of storm damage, just click my profile to see that.

Source

Personal experience