Rocky Mount business owners speak 1 week after tornado: 'Warnings hit different now'

ROCKY MOUNT, N.C. (WTVD) -- Friday was Alex Burgess' first time back at his business, Alpha Automotive, since a tornado sent him to the hospital. The brace he wore and the abrasions on his back paint a picture of what he experienced a week ago.

"I have a fractured spine, seven broken ribs, and a torn MCL in my knee," said Burgess.

He was working on the car that was still on the lift inside his shop when the tornado touched down. It happened so fast that Burgess and his partner didn't have time to run.

"He had his head cut open, hips injured and even broke his ankle," he said. "He's recovering."

Burgess said cinder blocks flew as strong winds leveled some of the buildings and shattered windows of more than a dozen of his customers' cars.

"Sometimes I feel like I let some people down," said Burgess.

It's clear by the damage it's going to take the business owners in the area a while to get back on their feet. There's no timeline on when they will reopen.

The Hing Ta Restaurant sits next door and Eduardo Luna was inside eating at the time of the storm's arrival.

"A table trapped my leg and somebody helped me get out," he said.

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Luna was thankful he wasn't sitting in his car that now has a beam through the driver's seat. The front door of the restaurant was damaged and he was among many customers who had a hard time getting out.

"It was a little hole where everybody comes out. They crawled out," he said.

Valerie McClure's mom has owned the restaurant for 29 years.

"We had the structural engineer come out yesterday. We're going to present that to the city inspector to see if we can salvage any of the supplies on the inside," she said.

McClure works down the road at the Pfizer plant that was destroyed a year ago. Her family was impacted by storms two years in a row.

"Tornado warnings hit differently now," she said. "We take that very seriously."

The plan is to demo the entire dining area and add fencing around the property, but over at Alpha Automotive, the damage is far worse than the owner could imagine. It's why he started an online fundraiser: Fundraiser by Johnny Parrish: Support Alex's Recovery and Shop Rebuilding

"I'm one of those ones who don't ask for help, but the person I was renting from didn't have insurance," Burgess said.