‘When Jesus comes calling.’ NC community mourns man killed in Catawba County tornado
Throughout much of Claremont, a tiny town of 1,300 people in Catawba County, it did not appear Wednesday that a destructive and deadly storm had passed through the day before.
A man was engaged in an early morning jog down a street. In another part of town, a burial ceremony was held at a local grave site.
But in the Fox Hollow neighborhood, in the 2400 block of Evening Drive, Catawba County Sheriff’s Office vehicles and a brigade of energy company trucks led to carnage left behind by an EF-1 tornado confirmed by the National Weather Service. The tornado barreled through the mobile home community on Tuesday afternoon and killed one man.
NWS officials indicated they did not have a starting point for the storm, but the endpoint was near Iredell County.
‘When Jesus comes calling’
Deborah Rozier, a longtime neighborhood resident, said she grabbed her dogs and Bible when an intense burst of wind shifted her home.
“Where do you go and hide when Jesus comes calling?” Rozier said after being asked by a reporter whether she attempted to find shelter. “The wind stopped right at the (front) door and then went away.”
Though Rozier came out relatively unscathed, others in the tight-knit neighborhood were less fortunate.
Catawba County Emergency Management officials said about 30 residents were displaced because of the storm. They were offered temporary shelter at nearby Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church. About six people stayed overnight at the church, officials said.
Additional impacts from the storm included flooding, downed trees, power lines, isolated structural damage, and power outages in various parts of the county.
Tornado’s lone fatality
Nearly all the homes sustained some damage or were destroyed by winds estimated by NWS as high as 110 mph, including one occupied by Dustin Ray Weaver.
Weaver, 39, was the lone fatality from the storm’s wrath that turned his parents’ longtime home into a mangled mess of aluminum, concrete and wood. Residents say he was killed while trying to protect his pregnant girlfriend.
Tammy Yates, who described the sound of the tornado as akin to a freight train, rushed to Weaver’s home. With the assistance of another neighbor, they then pulled Weaver from the rubble and attempted to revive him.
“We started CPR on him right away,” said Yates. “But someone said he was gone.”
The unidentified woman, one of four people injured, was transported to an area hospital for treatment, according to Catawba County officials.
‘I’d trade places with him’
Friends and relatives remembered Weaver as a kind man who would do anything for others.
“He was a good ‘ol boy,” said Melanie Pack, a relative, while searching for anything from the home she could salvage. “He would help anyone out.”
Said Wayne Smith, a longtime friend of Weaver: “I’d trade places with (Weaver) any day. I’m 71 years old and lived a good life. It makes you think about stuff.”
Catawba County officials will begin damage assessments to determine the storm’s impact.
This story was originally published January 10, 2024 at 5:27 PM.
