Fifteen years ago, a devastating tornado with winds topping 207 miles per hour ripped through the Charles County town of La Plata toppling buildings, killing three people and injuring more than 100 others.
Fifteen years ago, an F4 tornado ripped through the Charles County town of La Plata. The 2002 storm was blamed for three deaths and more than 100 injuries.
(WTOP File Photo/Dave Dildine)
WTOP File Photo/Dave Dildine
In 2002, a tornado hit the Charles County town of La Plata, devastating the center of town and killing two people. A third person was killed in Calvert County.
(WTOP File Photo/Dave Dildine)
WTOP File Photo/Dave Dildine
A Facebook page created to remember the event includes photos of the destruction and memories of those who lived through the deadly twister.
(WTOP File Photo/Dave Dildine)
WTOP File Photo/Dave Dildine
Fifteen years ago, an F4 tornado ripped through the Charles County town of La Plata. The 2002 storm was blamed for three deaths and more than 100 injuries.
(WTOP File Photo/Dave Dildine)
WTOP File Photo/Dave Dildine
With winds that reached an estimated 207 miles per hour, the tornado rated an F4 on the now obsolete Fujita scale.
(WTOP File Photo/Dave Dildine)
WTOP File Photo/Dave Dildine
The 2002 storm was blamed for three deaths and more than 100 injuries.
(WTOP File Photo/Dave Dildine)
WTOP File Photo/Dave Dildine
Fifteen years ago, an F4 tornado ripped through the Charles County town of La Plata. The 2002 storm killed two people in La Plata and a third person in Calvert County. More than 100 people were injured.
(WTOP File Photo/Dave Dildine)
WTOP File Photo/Dave Dildine
The 2002 twister devastated the center of town and killed two people.
(WTOP File Photo/Dave Dildine)
WTOP File Photo/Dave Dildine
A Facebook page created to remember the event includes photos of the destruction and memories of those who lived through the deadly twister.
(WTOP File Photo/Dave Dildine)
WASHINGTON – Fifteen years ago a crushing tornado ripped through the Charles County town of La Plata toppling buildings, killing two people and injuring many more.
The twister’s winds reached an estimated 207 miles per hour or more, rating it an F4, the second most damaging range of tornadoes, on the now obsolete Fujita scale.
A third person was killed in Calvert County and the storm continued its destruction on the other side of the Chesapeake Bay in Eastern Maryland. More than 100 people total were injured from the storm.
WTOP’s Dave Dildine visited the town the day the tornado struck on April 28, 2002. The scene is something he will never forget.
“Large portions of houses (were) completely lifted up and transported several hundred feet down the road,” Dildine said.
Another sight struck him.
“The number of vehicles that were picked up from parking lots here, there, (and) driveways, flipped, tossed, turned.”
The storm’s path was clear, he said.
“It was as if a bulldozer came through the center of La Plata and just carved a swath straight through the center of town, leaving nothing in its path,” Dildine said.
Dildine said that, thankfully, storms like that are hardly ever seen in the D.C. region.
“The magnitude of the damage is something that no one in this region has seen for decades, if not longer. It is very rare for a tornado of that intensity to strike anywhere east of the Mississippi River,” he said.
