Stories of survival endure 5 years after tornado ripped through East Greensboro

GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) — On April 15, 2018, parts of East Greensboro were torn apart by an EF2 tornado.

The tornado shredded through neighborhoods, leaving people homeless and tearing trees from their roots.

Greensboro residents have shared their shock with FOX8 over the five years since the tornado hit.

Remembering the East Greensboro tornado 5 years later (WGHP)
Remembering the East Greensboro tornado 5 years later (WGHP)
Remembering the East Greensboro tornado 5 years later (WGHP)
Remembering the East Greensboro tornado 5 years later (WGHP)
Remembering the East Greensboro tornado 5 years later (WGHP)
Remembering the East Greensboro tornado 5 years later (WGHP)

Esther Norris spoke with FOX8’s Jordan Brown in 2022 and recalled what it was like living on Pine Street when the tornado touched down in her neighborhood.

“I was saying, ‘Oh my God. We’re in a tornado. This might be it,’” Norris said.

It’s a day Norris says she’ll never forget. Like many people who were around, she remembers exactly what she was doing the moment it hit.

“We were getting stuff in the house, and then I heard this funny noise, sounded like a train, and I said, ‘I don’t see a train. There’s no train. The train just went past. The train couldn’t have went past because one is coming.’ Then, all of a sudden, both of us looked back there, and he said, ‘Oh my God. Look at that,’ and it was just twisting, coming down,” Norris said.

The storm damaged her roof and knocked down a centuries-old tree that stood in her backyard. She says it narrowly missed her home. The stump is still rooted in the ground.

Luckily, nobody in the house was hurt that day, and Norris wasn’t displaced. Unfortunately, dozens of other people in East Greensboro couldn’t say the same.

“I mean, you just think, that could have been me,” Norris said.

She says one positive thing that came out of all of the destruction was seeing the community come together to help one another.

She says it restored her faith in humanity.

A year before FOX8 spoke to Norris, Brian Turner, who was living on Holt Avenue when the tornado touched down, said he had never seen anything like it.

“The whole neighborhood was ripped up. It was bad…it just tore up everything,” Turner said.