Scariest night I can remember. We lived in the Village of Pickwick Apartments off of Millbrook Road.

36 years ago today.

1988:
There was no warning. Not from the National Weather Service, and not from Raleigh's local television stations. Even if anyone had been looking for it, they wouldn't have seen it at one o'clock in the morning. Not even the local weather radar spotted it in the early morning darkness, since, as fate would have it, it forms almost directly over the Raleigh-Durham airport. Because of the FAA's powerful situational radars in 1988 using the same radio bands tracking the planes on approach and departure, there is a blind spot for weather radars directly over the airport. ON THIS DAY, completely unseen, a raging F4 tornado touches down first in Umstead State Park and begins to hop-skip its way toward an unsuspecting Raleigh.
The only warning for the North Raleigh suburbs is the tell-tell roar described as like a passing freight train as the tornado begins to carve its way through 2500 homes and 75 businesses. Entire shopping centers, including the Glenwood Avenue K-Mart, are ripped apart as it tears through a sleeping Northern Wake County.
Tragically two children are killed, 9-year-old Janet Barnes and 12-year-old Pete Fulghum, and 157 more are injured. In all, more than 425 residences are destroyed. In addition, as the tornado lifts into Nash County, a couple is killed as the storm rips their mobile home apart.
In 30 minutes, it is over. The tornado weakens as it moves northeast into Franklin County, and dissipates as it eventually crosses Interstate 95. It leaves $77

Dang 36 years. I remember the K-Mart getting hit, didn't know about the two kids. Sad. I haven't been over there in probably 20 years. Was there also a Burger King at the corner?

ncsupack1 said:

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Dang 36 years. I remember the K-Mart getting hit, didn't know about the two kids. Sad. I haven't been over there in probably 20 years. Was there also a Burger King at the corner?

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BK is still there

Glasswolf said:

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ncsupack1 said:

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Dang 36 years. I remember the K-Mart getting hit, didn't know about the two kids. Sad. I haven't been over there in probably 20 years. Was there also a Burger King at the corner?

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BK is still there

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Wow. I need to head that way one day, isn't the old K-Mart a Wal-Mart now?

ncsupack1 said:

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Glasswolf said:

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ncsupack1 said:

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Dang 36 years. I remember the K-Mart getting hit, didn't know about the two kids. Sad. I haven't been over there in probably 20 years. Was there also a Burger King at the corner?

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BK is still there

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Wow. I need to head that way one day, isn't the old K-Mart a Wal-Mart now?

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Yes sir

Remember waking up to the news that morning. Just devastating. I remember that night and the night of the Hillsborough tornado the early 90s having the same type of atmosphere feeling and the sky at night was a greenish hue.

I was out of school for a couple of years when this happened, living in Greensboro… but I had a fraternity brother who's girlfriend at the time lived in an apartment complex that it went right through and shredded. May have been the same one Glass mentioned but I wouldn't remember the name unfortunately.

TheStorm said:

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I was out of school for a couple of years when this happened, living in Greensboro… but I had a fraternity brother who's girlfriend at the time lived in an apartment complex that it went right through and shredded. May have been the same one Glass mentioned but I wouldn't remember the name unfortunately.

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The apartments that I lived in suffered minor damage. The townhouses where I lived lost most if not all their roofs. The apartments across the street that were located between my complex and K-Mart suffered a bunch more damage but none were technically shredded. A lot of damage though. My wife's car at the time lost every window in the car. Cold ass drive going all the way to Lake Wheeler Rd. to get all that glass replaced.

Glasswolf said:

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TheStorm said:

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I was out of school for a couple of years when this happened, living in Greensboro… but I had a fraternity brother who's girlfriend at the time lived in an apartment complex that it went right through and shredded. May have been the same one Glass mentioned but I wouldn't remember the name unfortunately.

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The apartments that I lived in suffered minor damage. The townhouses where I lived lost most if not all their roofs. The apartments across the street that were located between my complex and K-Mart suffered a bunch more damage but none were technically shredded. A lot of damage though. My wife's car at the time lost every window in the car. Cold ass drive going all the way to Lake Wheeler Rd. to get all that glass replaced.

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I remember that her car got destroyed as well, and that she was driving a rental for about a month waiting on the insurance settlement... he dated her for a couple of years at least that I remember, never knew why they eventually stopped going out - but like I said, I was living in another part of the state by then and making it back to Raleigh less and less as time went on.

It was the Sunday after Thanksgiving and had been fairly warm. Cold front came through and we were having tremendous thunderstorms before the tornado. My dog was acting strange the whole time and my 6 year old youngest son kept saying tornado is coming. My wife did not get home until late from her part time job and I told her she had to settle him down. We finally were lying down in the bed and I was hearing the thunder and then suddenly my wife got up to go check the TV. She heard the train sound and before she could get down the hallway, we had no power.

We were living off of Sawmill Road that time and the tornado missed the house we were renting by about 200 yards. We had a metal storage shed in the back get destroyed and lots of branches down. One house up at the corner of Longstreet and Sawmill had the sides bowed out from the pressure. House next door basically no damage. The building at the corner of Six Forks and Sawmill(not in the Celebration shopping center) took a glancing blow but was visibly damaged. Across Six Forks on Mourning Dove Drive there was a house lifted off it's foundation and in the middle of the street.

The young girl that was killed was in kindergarten with my oldest son.

A good friend of mine from Jacksonville, lived right off Lynn Road and his house was destroyed. He covered up his infant daughter to protect her and everybody in the house survived. They found a shingle inside his daughter's little sleeper outfit.

One guy who lived right behind the K-Mart had his mattress lifted up while he was in it then landed in a tree and survived. Crazy stuff.

I had four calls from relatives the next morning before we ever knew how much damage there was since we had no power and no TV. Hard to believe it's been 36 years.

DrummerboyWolf said:

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It was the Sunday after Thanksgiving and had been fairly warm. Cold front came through and we were having tremendous thunderstorms before the tornado. My dog was acting strange the whole time and my 6 year old youngest son kept saying tornado is coming. My wife did not get home until late from her part time job and I told her she had to settle him down. We finally were lying down in the bed and I was hearing the thunder and then suddenly my wife got up to go check the TV. She heard the train sound and before she could get down the hallway, we had no power.

We were living off of Sawmill Road that time and the tornado missed the house we were renting by about 200 yards. We had a metal storage shed in the back get destroyed and lots of branches down. One house up at the corner of Longstreet and Sawmill had the sides bowed out from the pressure. House next door basically no damage. The building at the corner of Six Forks and Sawmill(not in the Celebration shopping center) took a glancing blow but was visibly damaged. Across Six Forks on Mourning Dove Drive there was a house lifted off it's foundation and in the middle of the street.

The young girl that was killed was in kindergarten with my oldest son.

A good friend of mine from Jacksonville, lived right off Lynn Road and his house was destroyed. He covered up his infant daughter to protect her and everybody in the house survived. They found a shingle inside his daughter's little sleeper outfit.

One guy who lived right behind the K-Mart had his mattress lifted up while he was in it then landed in a tree and survived. Crazy stuff.

I had four calls from relatives the next morning before we ever knew how much damage there was since we had no power and no TV. Hard to believe it's been 36 years.

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Wow, that is scary.

DrummerboyWolf said:

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It was the Sunday after Thanksgiving and had been fairly warm. Cold front came through and we were having tremendous thunderstorms before the tornado. My dog was acting strange the whole time and my 6 year old youngest son kept saying tornado is coming. My wife did not get home until late from her part time job and I told her she had to settle him down. We finally were lying down in the bed and I was hearing the thunder and then suddenly my wife got up to go check the TV. She heard the train sound and before she could get down the hallway, we had no power.

We were living off of Sawmill Road that time and the tornado missed the house we were renting by about 200 yards. We had a metal storage shed in the back get destroyed and lots of branches down. One house up at the corner of Longstreet and Sawmill had the sides bowed out from the pressure. House next door basically no damage. The building at the corner of Six Forks and Sawmill(not in the Celebration shopping center) took a glancing blow but was visibly damaged. Across Six Forks on Mourning Dove Drive there was a house lifted off it's foundation and in the middle of the street.

The young girl that was killed was in kindergarten with my oldest son.

A good friend of mine from Jacksonville, lived right off Lynn Road and his house was destroyed. He covered up his infant daughter to protect her and everybody in the house survived. They found a shingle inside his daughter's little sleeper outfit.

One guy who lived right behind the K-Mart had his mattress lifted up while he was in it then landed in a tree and survived. Crazy stuff.

I had four calls from relatives the next morning before we ever knew how much damage there was since we had no power and no TV. Hard to believe it's been 36 years.

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It was a wild night indeed