Volks, Anyone know the year the tornado hit Abingdon? Seems it was 1929. Went up Main St or Valley St. seems to me that's what I heard. I think there was real damage. It happened sometime in the afternoon. -eddie Some people try to be someone they are not. I do not even try to be who I am.

Eddie, The last tornado which hit Abingdon, Va. was about 1942-43. I was outside playing and the wind blew so hard I could lean over into it at about a 45 degree angle. I was amazed at the force of it. I lived about five miles west of Abingdon, it didn't hit where we lived but they were building a new building at the trade school on the east end of town and the wind actually twisted and bent the heavy steel framework. I think it went across Taylors Hill which is a few blocks north of Valley Street. Many years ago, a tornado came up North Fork Holston River and it lifted Aunt Susie Stanfields house off the foundation and sat it down flat in the yard. She lived where the campground is located. Back then most people had kerosene lamps with the big glass globe. It sat the house so easy it didn't knock the globe off her lamp! True! G. Lee Hearl Authentic Appalachian Storyteller Abingdon, Va.

Eddie & All: During the early 1930s a tornado or cyclone hit Rye Cove School. It was near the Ky-Va line but I don't know which state it was in. Seems to me it killed about 40 children who were in the school at the time. The Carter Family recorded a song about it. Does anyone have the words to the song? G. Lee Hearl Authentic Appalachian Storyteller Abingdon, Va.