The F3 tornado that hit Seneca, South Carolina carried that letter over 18 miles away.
Earlier this week a series of unfortunate tornadoes hit South Carolina with one of an estimated 10 tornadoes landing in Seneca, SC, home to hundreds of homes and the Borg Warner assembly plant. According to Liberty resident Daniel Skipper, the giant letter B that spells out Borg Warner landed in his front yard, intact. A quick measure on Google Maps reveals that this letter traveled over 18 miles before it landed there.
Check out Daniel’s Instagram post below including a screenshot of the Google Maps measurement.
Here’s another screenshot showing what the sign looked like courtesy of a Borg Warner informational video.
“Maximum structural damage to houses and a large warehouse (Borg Warner) indicate winds near 160 MPH, for a strong EF3 Rating.”
It’s a common phenomenon for tornadoes to pick up objects and hurl them, sometimes in one go but often over several cycles of rising and falling, miles from where they came from.
In this localized system of tornadoes The Island Packet reports that a note written in 1965 traveled from Hampton County to Cross, SC, over 90 miles.
On Monday WAPT.com reported that a tornado picked up a handful of mementoes and photos in Mississippi and dropped them over 120 miles away in Alabama.
And just yesterday KKTV.com shared a story of how a Jonesboro, Arkansas woman reunited with baby pictures of her son only after an E-3 Tornado hit her home, flinging the photos 60 miles away.
But this Borg Warner letter sign is particularly impressive considering it probably weighs over 50 pounds.
There are already plans to reunite this letter with the original Seneca Plant. A Borg Warner employee replied, asking that this letter be brought back and hung somewhere as a reminder.
Rachel Walden writes,
HI! I work for BorgWarner and would like to know if I could get that “B” it would be great to use it when we rebuild.
This series of tornadoes did a number in South Carolina but eventually, life will return to normal and South Carolinians will rebuild. Bringing back this letter will be a reminder of the resilience of that great state.
