See map of tornado’s deadly nine-mile path of destruction through Catawba County
Tuesday’s Catawba County tornado that killed a man and injured four people ripped apart homes and sliced large trees on a 9-mile path of destruction, a National Weather Service report revealed Thursday.
The EF-1 tornado touched down at 12:27 p.m. near Yount Road in Claremont, where it broke large trees, according to the report by an NWS damage survey team.
The twister uprooted trees from Love Road to Boggs Road as it sped northeast and intensified before reaching Hewitt Road near McLin Creek, the team found.
On Cindi Lane in the Fox Hollow neighborhood, the 110-mph tornado uprooted or snapped several large trees before heading north and damaging several manufactured homes on Evening Drive.
Dustin Ray Weaver was killed in one of the homes, authorities confirmed Wednesday.
The tornado rolled the home over and partially tore it apart, according to the NWS report. The home was tied down, but only in shallow holes, the team said.
The walls of another Fox Hollow home were torn away from the floor and undercarriage, and two other homes had major roof or wall damage, according to the team.
All four injuries happened elsewhere in the neighborhood, two of them serious, the report showed.
The tornado’s path continued after it hit neighborhood
A minute or two after leaving the neighborhood toward the northeast, the tornado snapped tree trunks on Old Catawba Road and then along Interstate 40 between the Catawba River and Buffalo Shoals Creek, the investigators found.
The tornado dissipated or lifted near the I-40 Sharon School Road exit in western Iredell County, NWS meteorologist Jake Wimberley told The Charlotte Observer.
The team found tree damage on Whitney Lane just north of the exit, he said.
The tornado ended at 12:33 p.m., according to the report.
EF 1 is the second weakest of six tornado classifications on the scale. It’s considered “moderate” with winds from 86-110 miles per hour, according to the NWS.
This story was originally published January 11, 2024 at 3:30 PM.