Tuesday, March 14, 2023

Trees Uprooted, Barns Destroyed, Tops of Houses Lifted Off in Snow Hill, March 14, 1923

Wind Play Havoc Around Snow Hill . . . Uproots Trees, Blows Down Barns and Lifts Tops Off of Houses

Goldsboro, March 13—A semi-tornado twisting off poplars six inches in diameter, stripping the roofs off tenant houses, blowing down tobacco barns, carrying away all the skylights on a new brick tobacco warehouse, and driving huge firebrands from a forest fire onward across fields to be extinguished by the rain driven too by the wind, struck Snow Hill at 2 o’clock this afternoon, O.C. Liles, a salesman, reported here tonight.

A sky light and frame was thrown on a man in a horse and buggy, severely cutting him. Mr. Liles was in the midst of the storm. He declared that had not the storm split, one prong going north and another southwest, many more buildings would have been wrecked. The north prong of the storm followed Contentnae Creek, wringing off poplars and cedars and filling the air with debris and burning fagots from an old field fire. The houses with the roofing stripped off were tenant houses with tin roofs for the most part. Tobacco barns blown down too were old buildings, but the warehouse with the wrecked top was new and one of the finest in Eastern Carolina.

Reports came here late tonight of storm and hail in the Dudley section of this county which wrecked several barns. A slight fall of hail followed by a heavy wind storm struck Goldsboro at noon today.

From the front page of the Raleigh News & Observer, March 14, 1923

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