On April 16, 2011 several supercell thunderstorms spawned damaging and lethal tornadoes that swept across 20 counties in North Carolina.
Bladen was one of those counties. The Bladen tornadoes left 4 dead and millions of dollars of damage.
The cell that passed through Bladen devastated an area northeast of Bladenboro and left one dead…bounced across the county and continue a path of destruction causing extensive damage in the Elizabethtown area including homes and Elizabethtown Baptist Church. The storms continued on a northeastern path and touched down near the Bladen-Cumberland County line northwest of Ammon, off NC 242 at Fayetteville Road, again causing more damage and left 3 dead.
The enhanced Fujita or EF-scale ratings assigned to the Bladen County tornado was EF2. The EF rating assigned to a tornado path is based on the maximum damage observed at the location. A structure situated in the path of an EF3 storm can have EF1 damage. Winds in an EF3 tornado were judged to be 136 to 165 mph.
In all, about 20 counties in North Carolina suffered damage, approximately 16 in the eastern part of the state.
24 fatalities were reported, including 12 in Bertie County.. The Federal Government declared portions of the state a disaster area and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) opened offices in the area to process aid applications.
Bladen County fatalities included Brian Thomas Baptist, 50, of Bladenboro. Three more were killed near Ammon. Included were Marchester (Mark) Avery, 92, Tony Avery, 50, and Darleen Zupo, 54.
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