Greenwood families were recovering Sunday morning as the community helped them clean up two leveled homes, numerous damaged homes and one death caused by a tornado the night before.
Staci Warrington, 32, was at dinner in Ocean City when her neighbor called her with what she thought was an unfunny April Fool’s joke.
“She said, ‘Honey, you need to get home right now, your house is gone,’ and then she started crying and I knew she wasn’t joking,” Warrington said.
Her Fawn Road home in Greenwood was destroyed down to the foundation. Four dogs survived and were found scattered nearby. As of Sunday morning, Warrington’s cat was still missing.
“Everything’s gone. Stuff you don’t even think about,” she said.
Warrington, a crop consultant, had owned the house for about three years. Her truck was also overturned in the storm, but suffered little damage.
After speaking to reporters, Warrington got in an excavator and started using it to move the rubble of her own home. There was no moping on Fawn Road Saturday morning, just can-do attitudes.
By 9 a.m., the community was out in full force.
More:Tornado, massive storms ravage Delaware. Here’s what we know
Delaware storms:At least 1 dead in house collapse; possible tornado in Sussex County
The Good Ole Boy Foundation was cutting up and disposing of downed trees. Warrington’s mother pointed out the Sussex Technical High School baseball team collecting salvaged items and loading them into a truck. Numerous local businesses were helping out, and Sen. Brian Pettyjohn (R-Georgetown) was arriving on scene.
A now unlivable home on Sugar Hill Road
The area of Fawn Road struck by the storm has a handful of homes clustered together, but just west, on Sugar Hill Road, Sharon Gosling’s home sits alone. It’s surrounded by a few now-destroyed trees in the middle of large swaths of farm fields.
Gosling’s home had part of the roof blown off and most of the windows were blown out. A detached garage was damaged, and several vehicles were overturned. On Sunday morning, debris surrounded the house and was scattered throughout the fields, where an irrigation system had overturned.
Gosling and her boyfriend were also in Ocean City, working delivering seafood, when the tornado hit. When her neighbor called and said her house had been damaged, she asked “How bad?” The photos made her cry.
She was emotional Sunday morning, but Gosling said her faith was keeping her strong. Her home isn’t livable, but she and her boyfriend have a place to stay. Friends and family were helping collect salvageable items from the home Sunday.
Tuckers Road devastation
Skip Sanders lives just across the field from the Tuckers Road house destroyed by the storm, where the tornado’s only fatality occurred. Police have not yet identified the victim.
Sanders and a dozen members of his extended family were having dinner when it hit. His view of the Tuckers Road home was blocked by trees, but he saw the debris swirling in the air before taking cover.
More:Delaware’s Inland Bays get a ‘D’ rating. Pollution, development, climate change to blame.
“The cloud cover was that greenish color, and then we heard the train sound,” Sanders said. “Our ears started popping. The whole house shook.”
His family took shelter in a pantry under some stairs, but his home experienced only a few missing shingles and pieces of siding. Other homes on Owens Road, where Sanders lives, and Tuckers Road had much worse damage. Multiple irrigation systems were overturned or broken there, as well.
But help was there, too, Sunday morning. Aside from friends, neighbors and helping hands, numerous police, fire and ambulance agencies had arrived.
Accompanied by an American Red Cross worker, a Delaware Department of Emergency Management representative said she was surveying the damage to determine if a major disaster could be declared. State police as of Sunday afternoon had not released the name of the deceased individual.
Shannon Marvel McNaught reports on Sussex County and beyond. Reach her at smcnaught@gannett.com or on Twitter @MarvelMcNaught
