A few seconds of fear yielded years of impact

Second of two parts. Read the first part here.

The United Press story that ran in the May 4, 1929, edition of The Daily Progress was no less heartbreaking because of its brevity.

The short piece addressed the tragic aftermath resulting from a powerful tornado making a direct hit on Rye Cove Consolidated School two days before. The focus of the story was on the burials of some of the 12 children who had been killed, as well as a 24-year-old teacher, Ava Carter.

W.J. Rollins was one of the eyewitnesses to the tragedy. He lived about a mile from the large two-story school, which housed students in elementary grades through high school.

Funnel with a headlight

Rollins’ view was unobstructed, since the school stood in the middle of a large open area with only a few trees. He described the twister as “a great funnel hurling itself through the air and bearing in front a kind of headlight.”

Only a matter of seconds passed from the time the tornado started barreling up the valley to the moment it hit the school. There were more than 150 children in classes that day in addition to the principal, A.S. Noblin, and eight teachers.

Rollins said when the tornado hit the school, the entire structure appeared to rise into the air and then explode. Some of the children were blown more than 100 yards away.

A few seconds before the vortex of wind slammed into the school, Elizabeth Richmond looked out the window of her second-story classroom and saw it turn ominously black. A moment later the teacher was knocked senseless when struck by her desk.

Roy Osborne, a senior, dove for the doorway of his classroom on the ground floor just before the tornado hit. A heartbeat after he caught a glimpse of the principal standing in the hallway, he felt himself being lifted into the air.

Noblin survived, landing in a small pond about 50 yards from the school. Osborne suffered a serious injury to his left arm when he landed in a heap on the hard ground.

Survivors pitching in

The courageous student ignored his own pain and blood to address the most pressing problem — fire. It had been a chilly day, and potbellied stoves throughout the school had fires going in them when the tornado hit.

Smoke and flames could be seen rising from several locations throughout the debris field. Osborne grabbed a bucket with his good hand, and with water from the pond, began to douse the flames.

Others quickly formed a bucket brigade, and with help from a heavy rain that was falling, that crisis was quickly remedied. As each minute passed more people arrived on the scene, many of whom couldn’t believe what they were seeing.

The school had been a source of great pride for the Rye Cove community, taking in students from a 7-mile radius. It was the fourth largest school in Scott County, which is located in the far western tip of the state.

It was hard for people to comprehend that in an instant the school had been reduced to a smoldering ruin. The visual devastation was made all the more dreadful by the sound of pitiful moans and sharp screams of pain that seemed to come from everywhere.

Frantic parents scrambled through broken glass and splintered boards to rescue children trapped in the rubble. Wailing cries of anguish lifted to the brooding skies as hope was dashed by the sight of a recognized body

Among the dead were 14-year-old Monnie Fletcher and her 8-year-old sister, Bernice. Little Emma Lane, just 6, was dead as well.

More than 100 children were injured, many of them seriously. Doctors sped to the scene from Bristol, Kingsport, Gate City, Big Stone Gap and surrounding communities.

The injured were rushed to hospitals by everything from cars to a special train that took many of the injured to the hospital in Bristol. One of the countless acts of kindness came from the management of Hotel Bristol, which invited any and all friends and relatives of the injured to “share their hospitality free of charge.”

Singer-songwriter A.P. Carter, a member of the famous Carter Family music group, lived in Scott County and was one of the first rescuers on the scene. He was moved and horrified by what he saw, and soon memorialized the tragedy by writing a song, “The Cyclone of Rye Cove.”

The song was recorded in 1929 by RCA Victor. The final verse tells of the tearful mothers and fathers who searched through the school’s wreckage only to find their “own child dying on a pillow of stone.”

The heartfelt song almost certainly brought tears to many eyes, but the scene around Rye Cove on May 4, 1929, brought many people to their knees.

All manner of vehicles from cars to horse-drawn wagons traveled in slow funeral processions along narrow roads still muddy from the torrential storm that had produced the killer tornado.

There were so many graveside services that day that preachers had to work out a schedule so there would be someone to officiate at each one. Emma was buried on a grassy knoll overlooking the site where the schoolhouse had been.

The Fletcher sisters were buried together in the same coffin in nearby Stanleytown. Miss Carter was buried in the family cemetery near Cove Creek.

Within months of the tragedy a new school started taking shape on the site where the old one had been. In the fall of 1930 Rye Cove Memorial High School opened with Noblin as its principal. A bronze plaque bearing the names of all 13 victims was affixed to the building.

In 1955 a new school opened that consolidated Rye Cove Memorial High with Clinchport Junior High and Fairview High Schools. It then became Rye Cove High School.

The name change didn’t mean the catastrophe would be forgotten. A story commemorating the 70th anniversary of the tornado said many Rye Cove parents continued to bring their children home from school whenever rough weather threatened.

And every school day students at Rye Cove Middle School pass by a poignant reminder of the terrible fury that swept away 13 young lives. Just outside the front entrance is a memorial.

The original bronze plaque of names is there, as well as the school bell that last called students to class in the early afternoon of May 2, 1929.