Bedford Co. community cleaning up after tornado

BEDFORD COUNTY, Va. (WDBJ) - The community is diving through the damage in Bedford County following storms May 28.

Dean Hostetter looked over the spot where his family property once stood. Now, not much remains after Friday’s damaging storms.

“This is something you see on TV,” he said. “Not at home.”

Hostetter and his wife were in a nearby house when the tornado ripped through. They saw it first hand.

“When I laid over my momma, I’m like, please God. don’t let it take this roof off this house, It’ll take all of us if it does,” Jill Hostetter said.

The National Weather service was also on site surveying the damage. They confirmed it was a tornado that ripped through Bedford County.

“Let this event be a good learning tool for us and remember that tornadoes can occur in the mountains and can occur in southwest Virginia, so it’s really important that we have multiple ways to receive weather warnings, we know where to go when those weather warnings are issued,” National Weather Service’s Phil Hysell said.

They collected data that help tell the story of the tornado’s path.

“It was our impression that maybe the damage started right off 221 but we noticed there was damage farther to the south so we’re going to need to backtrack and see where that started,” Hysell said.

As the National Weather service surveys and the community cleans up the damage, Gavin Morley brought a helping hand and his grill.

“I heard God telling me just to go and help, so I didn’t know what to do, but I grabbed my griddle, went to Sam’s Club this morning and grab some food,” Morley said.

He served up a hot meal to people picking up the pieces from the destruction.

“I like to help people and think that you know, there’s a lot of people out here this morning working very hard and they’re going to need to eat and so I wanted to be helpful in a way that was tangible and just be available,” he said.