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Lynchburg mom says suspected tornado wrapped trampoline around tree

Posted at 5:16 PM, Apr 16, 2018
and last updated 2018-04-16 18:47:32-04

LYNCHBURG, Va. -- In the middle of dinner Sunday night, a familiar sound started roaring outside Jessica Eubank’s house.

“It’s just a very distinctive sound. It’s so much noise. It’s a howling. They say the train, that's really what it sounds like. It sounds like a freight train,” Eubank said.

Eubank said a tornado tore through her town when she was just 15, and there is no doubt in her mind the same thing happened in Lynchburg Sunday night.

Jessica Eubank

“It was a constant, constant howling that we heard, and I knew that's what it was,” Eubank said.

She points to her kids’ trampoline and play house, which now blanket a nearby tree.

“It’s literally wrapped all the way around it,” Eubank explained.

While the storm spared Eubank’s home, John Knaus crouched on the floor of his house in a nearby neighborhood.

Jessica Eubank's home

“Crazy sound, windows bursting, glass flying all over the place, almost hit my eye,” Knaus said.

A piece of flying glass from one of several windows that broke during the storm caused a scar on his face.

“It was flying around, the windows were just imploding, never seen anything like that,” Knaus said. “I’m grateful that the lord spared me, I’m grateful that the trees just missed the house.”

Meteorologists from the National Weather Service walked around surveying the damage.

They were still investigating what caused the damage Monday afternoon.

“Just trying to determine whether it was caused by straight line winds or a tornado,” Nick Fillo, a meteorologist with the NWS in Blacksburg said.

Fillo said he saw evidence of rotation in Lynchburg, and he expects the NWS to make a determination by Monday night.

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