BERTIE COUNTY, N.C. — It’s been one week since a tornado ripped through a Bertie County mobile home community. Two people are dead, more are injured, and many lost everything they owned.
For survivors like Linard Outlaw, the memories are still fresh. He was at home with his girlfriend, Pamela, when the tornado hit.
“I ran outside with a flashlight and I said, 'Pam, the trailer’s gone.' I was looking for my best friend Chris and his family, and his trailer was gone,” Outlaw said. “His (Chris) head was busted open and it was bleeding; I took my hand and mashed his head back down, I tied his head up with my shirt."
Outlaw added, “It was something that ain’t nobody out here ever experienced. We seen it on TV but never thought it would happen to us... and it happened so fast. In less than 60 seconds, the trailer park was gone.”
He said he came outside to find his friends and neighbors strewn across a nearby field, surrounded by what was left of their homes.
“Keita out there in the field," Outlaw pointed. "Her daughter was over there with a broken leg. Miss Jordine was over there, Phil was over there in a ditch in front of his house, Little Ernest was out here, his son was out over here. And everybody was everywhere.”
A week later, there is still a lot of wreckage.
Workers from Bertie County Emergency Services and Samaritan’s Purse are cleaning the area, collecting large piles of debris, remnants of more than a dozen mobile homes.
Outlaw and his girlfriend spent the morning sorting through the rubble, salvaging what they could.
“Trying to find something, anything that we can save,” he said.
Sheila Craig owns property that was hit by the tornado. She lived in Bertie County her entire life. She said she can’t recall a time where a tornado hit the area, before.
“Even when the alert came through on my phone Monday night, I just casually said, ‘I wonder where that tornado’s going to touch down.’ Never knowing I would be the one getting the call, saying everything is gone,” she said.
“It’s hard to come through here and look at it. And I worry that I’m getting used to it."
Bertie County officials set up a PayPal relief fund. Officials say every penny will go toward helping survivors.
Over at the donation center, officials say they don’t need any more clothing. Instead, they’re asking for things like school supplies and hygiene products. You can drop off donations at Bertie Early College High School Gymnasium
“They’re saying 'Bertie Strong' and 'Morning Road Strong,'" Craig said. "We’re going to come back. We’re going to be better than we were.”
Outlaw said it’s a tragedy that brought everyone together.
“Everybody pulled together. Everybody came together as one family," he said. "Wasn’t nobody going to let nobody stay out in that field, I know that much.”
He said he’s grateful to be alive.
“I ain’t come to terms with it but the good Lord gives us strength. That’s all I can say,” he said. “I’m not sure yet, I still ain’t figure it out. I don’t know. Just one day at a time.”