Couple thrown 100 feet by NC tornado, storm destroys Pfizer plant and homes in Nash County

Just before 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, a tornado touched down north of Rocky Mount, near the Battleboro and Dortches communities.

Dozens of homes and buildings were damaged or destroyed, including the Pfizer plant in Rocky Mount.

There are now 16 confirmed injuries – 13 in Nash County and three in Edgecombe County.

Two people are facing life-threatening injuries: The storm threw Edgecombe County couple Dale and Ricky Carter 100 feet in the air.

The couple tried to shelter in what was a one-room building as the tornado devastated the area on Wednesday.

The tornado threw the couple to a field nearby.

Family members found the couple on Wednesday afternoon after the tornado passed. The Carters were rushed to the hospital. Dale Carter had a broken pelvis and bleeding in her brain. Ricky Carter has a broken leg and shoulder.

Beatrice Moore, the mother of Dale Carter, explained what the tornado was like on her family's Coker Town Road property.

"We were at the windows on the back porch there, and my husband says, 'Well, here it comes.'"

Moore said Ricky also has cancer.

"In the process of this, he's got a broken shoulder and a broken leg," Moore said of Ricky Carter. "He's already had a hip replacement."

Moore said there is a chance her daughter's husband won't survive his injuries. If that happens, the family's priority is to be with him at the end.

"To get him home," Moore said. "If he's going to die, I'd rather for him to be home and do it."

On Wednesday, Claudius Brewer looked outside his home on Charming Lane and debris was swirling through the air....

“It’s amazing the destruction that happened in just a matter of moments,” Brewer said.

Brewer recorded a video of the EF3 tornado that blasted through his neighborhood, the Puckett Mobile Home Park. He made sure he and his mom were ok after the tornado passed. Then, he looked outside to see what remained.

“When I stepped to the door, it was over here already and it just [came] swiping through, and at the end of video, I’m walking down the ramp, I’m on my way over here to our neighbors hollering trying to find them because both of them were buried,” Brewer said.

While Brewer was ok in his home, his neighbors were not.

“The tornado picked them up, dumped them out of the tub onto the ground and then, the roof settled,” Brewer said. “[The] floor came this way and the tub kept going.”

Brewer's neighbor's mobile home turned upside down.

On Thursday, the devastation left behind shows sand and cinder blocks and a staircase to nowhere. Also, there was an open fridge with the items looking unshifted inside despite the people’s belongings strewn about everywhere.

“They paid cash for this place a year ago,” Brewer said of his neighbors. “Both are disabled.”

On Thursday, relatives of the family sifted through the rubble. The couple was hospitalized after getting thrown out of their bathtub, and crushed by the roof.

“We had no warning, no wind or rain or hail,” Brewer said.

On Thursday afternoon, Rocky Mount Mayor Sandy Roberson issued a state of emergency within the city after Wednesday's EF3 tornado.

The state of emergency will end at 5 p.m. on Aug. 28.

Roberson issued the state of emergency due to "significant damage and destruction of property and public infrastructure caused by a tornado."

On Thursday morning, crews and families worked to clean up the destruction left behind by the rare EF3 tornado.

Sky 5 flew over the areas that were hit hardest on Thursday.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation asked people to avoid the following roads in Nash County where tornado damage has blocked roads and where cleanup is underway:

The National Weather Service confirmed it was an EF3 tornado with winds of up to 150 mph. An EF3 tornado is the fourth strongest type of tornado on a scale of six -- ranging from least violent (EF0) to most violent (EF5).

It is the second-ever EF3 tornado to hit North Carolina in the month of July. The only other EF3 in July in the state was July 4, 1967, in Gates County.

It's estimated that the tornado covered a path as long as 20 miles, according to WRAL meteorologists. The debris wall of the tornado was about 2 miles wide near Interstate 95 in Nash County.

It was a chaotic scene on the interstate, with people driving in the median and some trying to drive in the opposite direction. There were reports of injuries, damaged homes and cars with windshields blown out across Nash County.

NC tornado destroys homes, businesses in Nash County

The tornado severely damaged the Pfizer plant in Rocky Mount.

Nash County Sheriff Keith Stone told WRAL News that 50,000 pallets of medicine were destroyed when the tornado hit Pfizer. According to Pfizer's website, this facility produces nearly 25% of Pfizer's sterile injectables for U.S. hospitals.

The distribution and storage buildings were destroyed, and more than 100 vehicles and storage trucks were damaged at the plant.

It’s not yet clear what impact the damage will have on distribution and availability of Pfizer products.

The facility will remain closed until further notice.

Pfizer released the following statement: "At this point there are no reports of serious injuries. We are assessing the situation to determine the impact on production. Our thoughts are with our colleagues, our patients, and the community as we rebuild from this weather incident."

A document from Pfizer shows it has more than 3,200 employees as its facility at 4285 North Wesleyan Blvd.

On Thursday afternoon, a reporter asked Rocky Mount City Manager Keith Rogers Jr. how long it would take to repair the Pfizer building.

“No timeline on that from us right now, but we are communicating with Pfizer and we stand ready to support them in whatever they may need,” Rogers said.

Some neighborhoods were so damaged that first responders could not get to them, according to the sheriff.

As crews clean up from the storms, the sheriff is advising people to stay away from downed power lines to avoid the risk of death by electric shock.

It was a rainy morning Wednesday but wasn't particularly alarming. That all changed as the afternoon rolled around. A thunderstorm warning turned into a full-blown tornado within a matter of minutes.

The National Weather Service said up to 1 inch of hail is possible.

Tornado warnings are in effect for Edgecombe, Halifax and Nash counties.

Someone posted a photo of the tornado in Rocky Mount on Twitter.

There were reports of damage to the Pfizer building in Rocky Mount. An employee sent a photo of the damage to WRAL News.

Large hail is falling in Scotland Neck. There were 1,575 power outages reported in Nash County.

"The trees started flying," one driver told WRAL photojournalist John Payne. "The car started shaking ... the back window blew out ... we were in the eye of the tornado," said another driver. A third driver described trees flying past her window.

Everyone that parked on I-95 during the tornado appeared to be okay, but WRAL News is still working to learn how many people were injured.

It is the second-ever EF3 tornado to hit North Carolina in the month of July, according to the NWS.

"We want to thank our municipalities, Nash County volunteer fire departments, surrounding counties, North Carolina Highway Patrol, NCDOT, and North Carolina Emergency Management for their assistance during the emergency response," said Emergency Services Director Tony Cameron. "It takes a big team to recover from an event like this. We are also fortunate that the number of injured individuals remained very low despite the amount of damage we are seeing."

The spokesperson said a thorough assessment will occur once crews have cleared the downed power lines in the area.

It is unclear how many buildings were damaged.

Pfizer plant on North Wesleyan Boulevard:

Great Glenn area in Belmont Lake Preserve:

The fire department said they deployed all apparatus and service personnel during the height of the storm.