A lone safety inspector searches for gas and electrical hazards and injured residents Monday after an F-3 tornado devastasted a large portion of Suffolk.
In the wake of disaster
BY PATRICIA RADCLIFFE
CASEMATE STAFF WRITER
As Fort Monroe firefighter Scott Caldwell was browsing through an auto parts store in Suffolk Monday, he had no clue that his emergency rescue skills would soon be tested by a tornado.
Caldwell was biding his time in a NAPA outlet while his wife, Ann Marie, and daughter, Caitlin, were attending an appointment in a nearby dentist’s office. The ominous tone of an emergency alert message over a nearby radio caught his attention. It was saying something about tornados and the city.
Caldwell said he wondered whether it was merely a watch — where conditions are favorable for tornados to spawn — or an actual warning that meant the whirlwinds had been spotted already visually or using radar.
