Storm Destroys Many Hundreds of Acres of Crops, July 24, 1923

Storm Destroyed Many Hundreds Acres of Crops. . . Half a Million in Damage. . . No Serious Damage in Snow Hill Section, But in Pitt County Fine Crops of Tobacco, Corn and Cotton Were Completely Devastated by the Hail Storm

Greenville, July 23—Hundreds of acres of tobacco were declared to be a total loss as a result of the severe rain and hail storm that visited this section late yesterday afternoon and last night. Early reports placed the damage at half a million dollars.

The storm crisscrossed over an area approximately 15 miles, destroying tobacco, cotton and corn. Damage 75 Per Cent

Messrs. John H. Forbes, T.J. Wiggins, Alex Harrell, Will Felton and A.J. Walston of this county who went over the storm-stricken territory last evening immediately after the hail fell, give a woeful description of the extent of the damage. They say that the tobacco was torn into shreds, made into trash, and that the corn was simply reduced to ribbons. They estimate the damage in the path of the storm as amounting to 75 per cent.

The course of the storm was at a point two miles north of Mr. Gus Forbes, who lives about five miles north of Greenville and four miles of the Pitt County line out towards Walkland, and zigzagged and crisscrossed and spent its force near Snow Hill.

The hail reached about two miles wide on this side of Greenville and into the Ayden section. So far as we could learn, none of the parties carried insurance. There were good rains accompanying the storm reaching within six miles of Wilson.

From the front page of The Wilson Times, July 24, 1923