Tornado interrupts art museum gathering

Art museum Executive Director Georganne Bingham had just introduced her deputy director of art, David Brown, to the small crowd at Russ and Kelly Ellis' house June 3 when she saw an amazing thing.

"I will never forget watching that huge oak tree lift straight up out of the ground and then fall over," said Bingham, who with several other art museum officials was giving a presentation on the new art museum to potential donors at the time. "It just really lets you know the power of nature."

The Ellis' house on South Jefferson Street was squarely in the path of what was later confirmed to be a "weak tornado." It knocked down several large trees around the house as it skipped through South Roanoke toward the Blue Ridge Parkway and disappeared.

After surveying the damage, Bingham and others went back inside, where museum director of public programming Scott Fore strummed a guitar and "we just sat there and sort of calmed down," Bingham said. "It was a horrible thing. I just feel so badly that there was so much damage done."

Bingham, who has spent most of her life in North Carolina, said she had never been in a tornado before.

"And I hope I'm never in one again."