1929 Rye Cove tornado outbreak

The 1929 Rye Cove tornado outbreak was a deadly tornado outbreak that swept from southwest to northeast along the Appalachian Mountains from Oklahoma to Maryland in early May 1929. This outbreak, which killed at least 42 people and injured at least 323, is notable as one of the worst to affect the states of Maryland and Virginia. It is also one of the most intense tornado outbreaks to affect Appalachia. The F2 tornado that struck Rye Cove, Virginia, is the deadliest tornado in Virginia history and tied for the thirteenth-deadliest to hit a school in the United States, with all 13 deaths in a school building. Western Virginia was particularly hard hit, with additional tornadoes confirmed in Alleghany, Bath, Culpeper, Fauquier and Loudoun Counties. One of these tornadoes, near Culpeper, also destroyed a school, but the storm struck during the evening after classes had been dismissed for the day.

Rye Cove, Virginia
At 12:55 p.m. (EDT), as many as 155 students were attending classes at Rye Cove High School, near the town of Clinchport, when a strong thunderstorm approached from the southwest and produced a tornado just 0.5 mi away. As the tornado - referred to as a “dark cloud” - approached the school, it intensified and tore the roofs off many structures. Strong winds lofted lumber for hundreds of yards, leaving pieces lodged in trees. Next to the school, the tornado struck a log house that was built in the 1850s, picking up the entire structure and carrying some of its furniture up to 4 mi away.

A teacher at the seven-room, wooden school heard the wind increasing outside but did not alert her students. Moments later, the tornado struck, reportedly causing it to “explode” and violently spread debris over a wide area. The powerful storm killed one teacher and 12 students, carrying their bodies up to 75 yd from the school’s limestone foundation. After the devastation at the school, the 0.25 mi-wide tornado destroyed five farmhouses before lifting.

The legacy of the tornado lived on in local folklore as A. P. Carter of the Carter Family, having visited the storm-stricken area and assisted in relief efforts, immediately recorded a song about the storm.