LOWGAP — Normally, Lowgap is a tranquil place protected by the mountains, where residents don’t worry much about weather-related disasters. That is, until Monday night, when a tornado plowed through the area.

“It sounded like it was just a roar,” said Doris Scott of 128 Tree Lane, which was in the area catching the brunt of the storm that swept through around 10:30 p.m. “And I wondered if that was a tornado.”

Scott’s theory was confirmed Tuesday when representatives of the National Weather Service in Blacksburg, Va., visited Lowgap and determined that a tornado had in fact struck the community.

The strong winds, which were accompanied by lightning, golf-ball-size hail and heavy rain, left hundreds of downed trees and structural damages, while causing nearly 400 power outages in the area, including at Raven Knob Scout Reservation. Roads also were blocked by fallen trees.

However, no injuries resulted, according to Surry County Emergency Services Director John Shelton, who referred to the situation as “a close call.”

The National Weather Service surveyed and made photographs of the damages and took various measurements. The agency subsequently determined that a lower-grade tornado with a top wind speed of about 83 mph had occurred, said Shelton, who accompanied its representatives to Lowgap.

Along with the evidence of damage left behind, “we had some good witnesses there, and actually one gentleman who saw the rotation of the funnel,” Shelton added.

The tornado centered on a section about a mile and a half long and around a hundred yards wide. The area affected basically stretched from Ramey Creek Road to Flippin Road along the N.C. 89 corridor.

“We have structures that were damaged, along with rooftops” throughout the community, Shelton said.

One home receiving heavy damage was that of Jerry and Patsy Amburn on Blevins Store Road, near the scout reservation. “The front part of their house was caved in,” said Elizabeth Horton, the couple’s daughter.

The Amburns were in the kitchen when they heard “a loud noise,” Horton said. Although the two escaped injury, they soon noticed the damage to the front part of the home which is expected to cost thousands of dollars to repair. “The insurance adjuster is coming today,” Horton added Tuesday afternoon.

She said a tarp was temporarily covering the open place in the house and that her parents “are going to be able to stay there.”

“No one was expecting it,” Horton said of the severe conditions.

Meanwhile, a tree fell on Gregory Golding’s house on Sweet Paradise Way. “It’s going to probably have to be re-roofed,” Golding said.

Camp Weathers Storm

The Boy Scout motto “Be prepared” received a real-life application Monday night at Raven Knob Scout Reservation, which Shelton said was at the edge of the path of destruction.

“We had fairly short warning that this tornadic activity was at hand,” said Keith Bobbitt, an official at the summer camp for scouts, which this week is hosting 400 boys along with 150 leaders and staff members.

“Most everybody was already at their campsite,” Bobbitt said of the timing of the late-evening storm. “They just stayed at their sites until it was over.” Several tents were blown down, but no one was injured.

Chainsaws and backhoes had to be employed to remove trees blocking roads around the reservation. “It was a challenge for some of the staff,” said Bobbitt, who added that camp personnel had received training for such a weather-related emergency.

Electricity to the reservation was disrupted for about four hours.

Sleeping bags and articles of clothing were left soaked by the storm and Bobbitt said Hutchens Cleaners & Laundry in Mount Airy cleaned them all for free. This included two van-loads of items, Bobbitt said.

The power disruption for Duke Energy customers peaked at 394 outages at 11:30 p.m. Monday, according to company spokesman Andy Thompson. “We had several broken poles and some lines were down,” Thompson said. A portion of Duke Energy customers had their service restored in the early morning hours Tuesday, and all were back on line by about 9:45 a.m.

Shelton said members of the Skull Camp Volunteer Fire Department worked diligently to “keep areas of egress and ingress open,” and that workers with the N.C. Department of Transportation also came in and cleared roadways.

Homeowners Clean Up

The sound of chainsaws was heard frequently Tuesday as affected Lowgap residents faced the task of cleaning up fallen trees and other debris left by the tornado.

This included the yard of Doris Scott on Tree Lane, which is aptly named due to being surrounded by thick woods. At least 40 trees fell in the vicinity of Scott’s house, which was spared from damage along with her outbuildings.

“I was really blessed,” she said in pointing out that the trees “went the other way” when they fell.

The situation was intensified by the loss of electricity. “Our lights went out about 10:30,” Scott said. “And I just sat in a chair with a flashlight and a cell phone. The lightning was really, really bad.”

Tuesday morning when she went outside and surveyed all the downed trees, “I just could not believe what I saw.”

Scott’s son, Johnny, who lives in King, was en route to his job in Winston-Salem when his mother called to tell him what had happened. He turned around and headed to Lowgap so he could help clear away debris from the storm.

While armed with a chainsaw, Scott said he hadn’t seen weather-related damage so severe since Hurricane Hugo struck in the late 1980s. That storm felled numerous trees along the nearby Blue Ridge Parkway and at Pilot Mountain State Park.

The tornado Monday night at Lowgap tended to break or twist the tops off trees, which Shelton, the county emergency services director, said coincided with the fact that its force was centered about 30 feet off the ground.

“Most of the event happened in the woods line, thank goodness,” he said. Shelton added that the mountainous terrain and heavy forestation around Lowgap kept the tornado from having “enough strength to reach the ground.”

Shelton said of tornadoes in general: “They do make a path and they do create a well-defined path when they come through.”

Though the unexpected storm had disrupted his day, Johnny Scott was philosophical about the situation Tuesday as he cut up trees around his mother’s property.

“It could have been worse,” he said. “It really gives you a good perspective of how powerful nature can be.”

Contact Tom Joyce at tjoyce@mtairynews.com or at 719-1924.