NOTE: This content is about weather and meteorology, similar to that contained in my WeatherMatrix Blog which ran from 2005-2022 on AccuWeather.com.

On July 20th, 2023, while I was at Oak Island, North Carolina on vacation, an EF3 tornado caused severe damage near Rocky Mount, NC, through the town of Dortches. It caused significant damage to the Pfizer plant nearby. This is what it looked like from the back of the plant:

I did an informal driving storm survey of the Dortches, North Carolina tornado that damaged the Rocky Mount Pfizer Plant on July 20, 2023. This was about 3 days later, when I was driving through the area on the way home from vacation. Roads were still closed and I was unable to get into Dortches downtown.

The triple dash cam video has some audio commentary and photos I took (some of which are below). Included in the video is:

– Tree and sign damage where it crossed I-95 north
– Tree & house damage at St Stephen’s Loving Daycare
– Trees down on Old Battleboro Rd. at a graveyard
– Trees down near the former Cogentrix EPS power plant
– Damage to the First Baptist Church on Battleboro-Leggett Road
– Damage to the Eastern Compost LLC facility on Battleboro-Leggett Road

Most of the video & photos (after the I95N footage) were filmed in the spots on this map:

Although I could see trees and a fence down at the front of the plant; unfortunately, the damaged portion of the Pfizer plant is not accessible by road, so there are no photos or video of that in this survey. From the front of the plant through the security bars, I could only see a crane helping to disassemble the roof:

The damage where the tornado passed over I-95 was humbling. Although not a long path, there was several hundred feet of missing trees in what would otherwise be a fairly dense forest.

The town’s sign was beaten and bruised by falling trees.

The damage to Eastern Compost was severe.