Soda Citizen - Photo Stories from the South

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On Assignment: Rocky Mount Tornado

Photos and words by Sean Rayford

“You’ve heard about karma, right?,” asked a man on his morning bicycle ride Friday in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. He was giving me an unofficial report on the damage he’d surveyed on his daily rides following the EF-3 tornado that touched down on Wednesday. At one home, mostly destroyed by the storm, was a dog that has been chasing him five years. To the point, where he feared for his safety at times. “I don’t think they will be back anytime soon.”

In addition to damaging homes in Dortches, North Carolina the tornado touched down in Rocky Mount where it ripped into a warehouse at the Pfizer manufacturing facility. Officials at Pfizer do not expect any immediate shortfalls in manufacturing of pharmaceuticals. Sixteen people were injured in Nash & Edgecombe counties. An EF-3 tornado contains winds up 150 mph.

All photos made July 21 in Nash and Edgecombe counties in North Carolina. To see more photos or to license them, NC: Pfizer Plant Damaged In North Carolina Tornado May Cause Hospital Drug Shortage


Related photo story:

Tornado strikes Allendale, SC


About the author: Sean Rayford is a South Carolina photojournalist and commercial photographer in Columbia, SC. He is a 2001 graduate of the University of South Carolina.