Egg Harbor's Tornado Sculpture Isn't What You Think It Is
Tornado ripped through town 14 years ago
By Myles Dannhausen Jr.
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The sculpture in front of the old Sunnypoint schoolhouse on
Highway 42, about three miles south of Egg Harbor. photo by Myles
Dannhausen Jr. (Taken with Instagram).
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Its rusted steel stands contorted, twisted to the west where a monster tornado ripped ashore on an otherwise quiet late August evening 14 years ago.
That F3 tornado (the strongest are rated F5) devoured the shoreline just south of Frank Murphy County Park, climbed the bluff toward Highway 42, and tore through the fields and woods a few miles south of the Village of Egg Harbor. It destroyed Sunnypoint Gardens and the Bel Air Motel.
Then the tornado began whipping pieces of the Cornerstone Suites into the rows of the fields surrounding, and it's wide swatch demolished much of the old Sunnypoint Schoolhouse as well. According to the National Weather Service, the twister was on the ground for nearly 14 minutes, carved a path of damage 5.1 miles long, stretched up to a half-mile wide, and caused damage estimated at nearly $7 million.
Miraculously, the massive funnel cloud did not kill a single person and injured only two.
About a year later a sculpture appeared in front of the old Sunnypoint School. It's mangled shape, massive body, and three tiny legs were unmistakable - an homage to the tornado that ripped across the very ground it stood on.