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CNN Live Today

Maryland Emergency Crews Clean Up Mess Following Tornado

Aired April 29, 2002 - 13:16   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Emergency crews now in southern Maryland looking for trapped victims and sizing up the damage from a killer tornado. It made a direct hit on the town of La Plata, leaving behind a path of destruction about 12 miles long. The area is just south of Washington, D.C. by about 25 miles or so. Once again, Patty Davis on the scene live with us again. Patty, good afternoon.

PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Bill. Well, it's pretty windy here, but nothing like what this community saw last night. The National Weather Service preliminary saying that this was an F-4 tornado. Now, it goes up to F-5, that being the worst. So these winds, we're being told, somewhere upwards in the range of 250 miles an hour.

Now, officials say that the tornado cut, in fact, a 24-mile swathe, that was from the National Weather Service, not a 12-mile swathe as we had been told earlier. Starting west of here, it took more than 100 homes, at least parts of them with it, many businesses including some of them in downtown La Plata here, including a Kentucky Fried Chicken completely demolished. Also demolished, a True Value hardware as well as a family supermarket just down the road here.

Now, part of this church also taken with it. I'm joined here by the Reverend Joseph Trigg, the rector of this Episcopal church. What are we seeing here behind us?

REV. JOSEPH TRIGG, TORNADO VICTIM: This is our parish hall right behind us and then the main body of the church over on the right. The main damage we suffered was to the roof of the parish hall. You can see there is some structural damage there. There's also damage on the other side to the roof of the sanctuary. You see quite a bit of daylight in there. Nothing that can't be fixed as far as I can see.

DAVIS: How bad is it? You said it's pretty dramatic from the inside? And do you plan to -- is it fixable?

TRIGG: Oh, it's all fixable as far as I can see, yes. We've already been in touch with insurance. I think -- given what happened, I'm grateful that the building was not damaged any more and I'm particularly grateful that as far as I know, no one in this particular parish lost you know -- was seriously injured or lost a life. We have one family I know of who lost a house. But they're OK. And I think that was really my first concern was for the people here in the church and, of course, I'm grateful that no more happened in the town than happened.

DAVIS: And what are you telling people as you try to deal with your own loss here, and they have a whole town that's devastating? How are you consoling them? What are you telling them?

TRIGG: Well, of course, you can't really explain something like this. And I don't know other than just to say it's one of those things that happens. I think the issue for me is what we do with it. And as far as I can see, one of the things that does happen with these things is that it does bring out the best of people.

We've had -- other pastors have been wonderfully supportive of us and of me. We've had people here from the church and people who are outside the church who have just come to offer their help. And I think -- for all of us it just makes us aware of what is really important in life, that other people are a lot more important than buildings or papers or those kinds of things. And so, it is a sobering experience, but I think one we can deal with, certainly.

DAVIS: Thanks for joining us. Reverend Joseph Trigg, the rector here at this Episcopal church that was damaged -- Bill.

HEMMER: All right, Patty, thank you. Patty Davis there.

Now going to turn our attention to Matt Ament. He saw that Maryland tornado firsthand. He was outside with a video camera taking pictures of the storm. We'll watch the tape here, bring him in by telephone from La Plata, Maryland to tell us what he saw and heard. Matt, can you hear me OK?

MATT AMENT, AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER: Yes, sir.

HEMMER: Take us through your house in your driveway that we're watching right now and the storm in the distance, sir.

AMENT: Right. I don't have power, so I will just go with what you're saying.

HEMMER: Not a problem.

AMENT: We were out shooting basketball and could see different sets of clouds going in different directions. Then over the tree line came the huge mass of debris swirling around. So we just watched that and the winds picked up. And there was a loud, rumbling noise, and we got inside the garage a little bit. I wanted to stay out there and get as much footage as I can. And then the tornado seemed to turn and head a different direction, so we stayed out there and that's when the hail came.

HEMMER: Back up a little bit. You say the debris, you saw that. Did you see that before you saw the funnel cloud?

AMENT: We didn't actually see a strong funnel. It's a huge mass just kind of swirling around and that's all it was. It was a big black mass and that's -- just debris and I couldn't even tell you what it was that was flying around, sheets of metal and... HEMMER: Matt, did you think that storm was ever going to take a turn and head toward you?

AMENT: No. We kind of -- were close enough to get it on tape but far enough away to get cover if we had to.

HEMMER: How much damage was done to your neighborhood?

AMENT: Most of the damage up here in this part of the neighborhood was from hail, to cars and the siding. But here at the back of the neighborhood, some of the houses were damaged a little more extensively.

HEMMER: Yes. And based on the tape that we're watching that we picked up from your camera, it doesn't appear that the tornado at that point is very well formed. Would you agree with that?

AMENT: Yes. Certainly.

HEMMER: Was it later then, where it came together or was it...

AMENT: That was just minutes after it hit La Plata. I guess you might have shown coverage of what it did downtown. This was just minutes after that.

HEMMER: Ever seen a tornado, Matt?

AMENT: No. I grew up in Colorado, but never saw one. Saw enough warnings, but not a tornado.

HEMMER: So oftentimes the sound is described to us. Describe what you heard.

AMENT: Before we could actually see anything, it was lightning and thundering and we thought it was just a rolling thunder, but it seemed to go on and on. And then, you know, then we saw it come over the tree line. It was just a loud, rumbling -- just a loud constant rumbling. You could hear the wind being sucked into the tornado.

HEMMER: And that hail is huge as it hits the ground. Hey, Matt, thanks for sharing your story and your videotape too, OK.

AMENT: You bet.

HEMMER: And good to know that you and your family are all right.

AMENT: The whole community is going to be OK.

HEMMER: Super. Matt Ament, an amateur photographer who got out his video camera yesterday when he heard the sounds of that storm coming through. Amazing stuff.

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