Riegelwood, North Carolina
Encyclopedia
Riegelwood is an unincorporated town in Columbus County, North Carolina
. It is noted as a site of paper mills for the lumber
industry.
, a tornado warning had been issued for eastern Columbus County , and prior to that a severe thunderstorm warning was issued for the same area at 6:21 am. At 6:37, an F3 tornado
struck a mobile home park and killed eight people, including two children, Danny Jacobs, 6 and Miguel Martinez, 13. Twenty people were injured. The tornado was a part of a 3-day long tornado outbreak
in the south where four other deaths were reported. Riegelwood was one of the hardest hit areas.
On Friday, November 17, 2006 an NOAA National Weather Service storm survey team assessed the tornado damage in Riegelwood and rated it at F3 on the Fujita scale
for nearly a mile in Riegelwood, with winds approaching 200 mph (320 km/h). The maximum width of the tornado was 300 yards where the F3 damage occurred. The rest of the 7 mile (11 km) damage path was narrow, less than a 100 yards wide, and rated at F1 with winds less than 100 mph extending north across Columbus County into western Pender County.
The Columbus County sheriff reported thirty homes destroyed in the F3 damage area, and another three structures were damaged in Pender County just west of Currie.
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
. It is noted as a site of paper mills for the lumber
Lumber
Lumber or timber is wood in any of its stages from felling through readiness for use as structural material for construction, or wood pulp for paper production....
industry.
Severe Weather Event in 2006
On November 16, 2006 at 6:29 am ESTEastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...
, a tornado warning had been issued for eastern Columbus County , and prior to that a severe thunderstorm warning was issued for the same area at 6:21 am. At 6:37, an F3 tornado
Tornado
A tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. They are often referred to as a twister or a cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology in a wider...
struck a mobile home park and killed eight people, including two children, Danny Jacobs, 6 and Miguel Martinez, 13. Twenty people were injured. The tornado was a part of a 3-day long tornado outbreak
Mid-November 2006 tornado outbreak
The Mid-November 2006 tornado outbreak was a significant tornado outbreak across the Southern United States and into the Mid-Atlantic States on November 15 and 16, 2006. It took place along a sharp cold front that tracked across the entire region from west to east. At least nine people were killed...
in the south where four other deaths were reported. Riegelwood was one of the hardest hit areas.
Fujita scale
The Fujita scale , or Fujita-Pearson scale, is a scale for rating tornado intensity, based primarily on the damage tornadoes inflict on human-built structures and vegetation...
for nearly a mile in Riegelwood, with winds approaching 200 mph (320 km/h). The maximum width of the tornado was 300 yards where the F3 damage occurred. The rest of the 7 mile (11 km) damage path was narrow, less than a 100 yards wide, and rated at F1 with winds less than 100 mph extending north across Columbus County into western Pender County.