"It didn't take but three minutes," he said.
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The destruction is still hard to fathom at his yellow home of more than 40 years on Morning Star Church Road in Edgecombe County.
The tornado tore most of his roof off and sent it flying. It also blew out car windows and ripped off a door from the daycare his wife used to run next door.
"I looked out there and it looked like the Wizard of Oz, saw so much trash in there and I saw these trees like they were going to buckle and come out of the ground like they were breathing," Powell said.
Across the street from Dave's house, we found workers hammering shingles back onto the roof of Morning Star Baptist Church.
The farther you went into Edgecombe County, the more you learned about the people whose lives have been upended including Dale and Ricky Carter.
ALSO SEE: 2011 Tornado survivor offers hope to Nash, Edgecombe Co. families
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Family members told Eyewitness News that they were in a home when the tornado blew through on Lake Coker Road in Whitakers.
Both were lifted up and tossed along with possessions and the entire house into an adjacent field.
They are still in the hospital as of late Friday.
Dale is doing better according to her sister. Ricky isn't faring as well and they're praying the 61-year-old will pull through.