Owner of RV destroyed in Hurricane Dorian tornado glad he chose not to stay

"Prepped it for the hurricane, not a tornado."

John Barker never expected to find his vacation trailer in pieces when he returned to Emerald Isle after Hurricane Dorian. Saturday, the RV park was literally turned upside down when a tornado hit a few hours before the hurricane.

"We almost stayed, thank God we didn’t," Barker said. "We normally come and prep and stay and then leave within 24 hours and we didn’t this time. If we had, we would’ve been right there."

The twister picked up Barker’s trailer and tossed it across the street. He spent Saturday morning searching for his wife’s figurines.

"I figure with a hand missing, a foot, bits and pieces, you know little things, still looking for my guitar and my tools," Barker said.

Ernestine and Van Etheridge drove from Raleigh to check on their RV after seeing our coverage. Their RV wasn't damaged like the others all around.

"Well, I’m very happy considering our place is spared," Ernestine Etheridge said.

Inside, the recently renovated RV was just as they left it.

“It almost seems impossible that things like that can happen," Etheridge said. "One is still standing and one right behind it is flipped over and destroyed."

Amazingly, no one was badly hurt in that tornado. Saturday, the National Weather Service confirmed another tornado from Dorian — in Carolina Shores — was an EF 2.