Salisbury tornado reached 105 mph
Meteorologists confirm status of storm that collapsed a building
A tornado with winds of up to 105 mph tossed vehicles and knocked down a concrete building in Salisbury on Monday afternoon, meteorologists confirmed Tuesday.
Meteorologists from the National Weather Service’s Wakefield, Va., office who surveyed the damage rated the tornado an EF-1 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, the second-lowest of six categories. It left a path of damage three-quarters of a mile long and 100 to 150 yards wide, they said.
The tornado tracked across southern Salisbury, touching down just south of the Salisbury University campus near a strip mall. It moved northeast along South Salisbury Boulevard, the section of U.S. 13 that runs through the town, causing minor damage to the shopping center, lifting cars in its parking lot and causing a nearby building to collapse when its winds blew into two large bay doors that had been left open, the meteorologists said.
It then tracked across university athletic fields to touch down near South Division Street and East College Avenue and damage a home on Rogers Street, they said. It lifted off the ground as it approached Snow Hill Road near the Elks Club golf course, they said.
Even before they investigated, the meteorologists said videos of the damage all but confirmed that a tornado was responsible. “Given the videos and damage we have seen, it will just be a matter of determining the strength of the tornado,” Scott Minnick, a meterologist at the Weather Service’s Wakefield office, said early Tuesday morning.
One video captured by surveillance cameras at Hopper’s Tap House, a bar just south of the university campus on South Salisbury Boulevard, shows large debris being tossed on the ground just before a white sedan is lifted up and tossed onto the vehicles parked beside it. The damage came as severe storms passed through the area about 1:40 p.m.
Zach Johnson, a bartender at Hopper’s, said when he surveyed the damage, it seemed surreal. “Being here in Salisbury, you don’t expect a tornado,” he said. “Hurricanes? Yeah, you can prepare for that. But not a tornado.”
Johnson said there was some damage to the building, but nothing too severe. One of three eateries in the Hopper’s building remained closed on Tuesday, and the front door’s glass was shattered. “We just thank God that none of our patrons were injured whatsoever,” Johnson said.
Tyler Post, an employee at the nearby Cheers liquor store, said he was walking a customer to their car during the storm. By the time he made it back inside the store, he said he had to hold the door closed behind him as winds whipped by. “It all happened really fast,” he said.
The liquor store sustained minimal damage, he said.
It is the second tornado confirmed on the Eastern Shore in three weeks.
Tornado warnings were also issued Monday afternoon in the Berlin and West Ocean City areas of Worcester County and on the other side of the Chesapeake in St. Mary’s County, when radar indicated possible rotation in storm clouds.
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