Rocky Mount, NC, Recovers From Tornado To Host Barbecue Competition

The Twisted Pair BBQ team earned a perfect score of 180 points for their beef brisket entry. Photo: Twisted Pair BBQ via Facebook. 

Imagine planning to hold a barbecue cookoff on a pleasant fall weekend when an EF3 tornado arrives just days before the competition is to be held. As final planning for the Eastern Carolina BBQ Throwdown was underway, Rocky Mount, NC, received significant damage from a tornado that rolled through the city with winds of 140 mph.

Damaged by a tornado only days earlier, the city of Rocky Mount, NC, recovered to have another successful BBQ cookoff. Photo: Fox Weather.

Tornado In Rocky Mount

The tornado was on the ground in the city for the length of about five football fields. It was associated with the remnants of Hurricane Helene, which had made landfall along Florida’s Big Bend two days earlier as a Category 4. It was the strongest tornado from the hurricane.

High winds associated with the hurricane caused extensive damage in Rocky Mount. Image: Fox Weather.

Barbecue Competition After Tornado

Nevertheless, Rocky Mount overcame the shock from having the tornado, and several days later the city again hosted Eastern Carolina BBQ Throwdown, which has been a superior barbecue competition for many years. I was first a judge in this cookoff in 2017 and have returned several times. It continues to be one of the best events of the year. The huge cheesecake (that has 12 slices) that each judge receives for participating clearly has not prejudiced my view. 

Chicken by Smokin’ Skullies, which was the grand champion at the last event that I judged, scored a perfect 180. Photo: Smokin’ Skullies via Facebook. 

Previously the competition had been held in the Rocky Mount Senior Center. This year brought about a change in the venue. For the first time, judges met in the Rocky Mount Event Center on Main Street. The new location provided more space for the judges as well as the cooking teams, which set up in the parking lot next to the center.

 

Smoke Central BBQ uses Heath Riles Rub for its chicken entry. Is that their secret? Photo: Smoke Central BBQ via Facebook.

Smoke Central BBQ Takes Top Honors

With $18,900 in prize money this year, the cookoff attracted many top times that compete in events sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbeque Society. This year 26 teams competed. The top team was Smoke Central BBQ from Lake City, SC. It also won first place in the chicken and pork ribs categories. In fact, it got a perfect score (180 points) for both entries—a rare achievement.

Smoke Central BBQ took for more than the grand championship honors. Photo: Smoke Central BBQ via Facebook. 

Entertainment At Cookoff

Because the event includes live music, inflatables, food trucks, and other entertainment, it's as popular for the community as the cooking teams and judges. Hopefully Rocky Mount will be spared from any more tornado damage in the future. However, the city will always be ready to host a superior barbecue cookoff.

The Rocky Mount Fire Department was on hand just to make sure that no flameups got out of hand.

Operation BBQ Relief in Action

When barbecue is handed to you, it’s usually a time of celebration or a moment of friendship, unless it has been prepared at a cookoff. Then a pitmaster in a competitive spirit may have something to prove and claim, “This barbecue is the best.”

Cooking equipment sets up quickly after a hurricane has damaged an area.

When barbecue is handed to someone after a hurricane or another natural disaster, it’s a different scene. In this case, the barbecue has been prepared by a volunteer with Operation BBQ Relief, a group of champion cooks. The person receiving the barbecue may be homeless or could have been waiting for a hot meal because the power is out and won’t be restored for days. Such was the scene when I saw Operation BBQ Relief in action for the first time in Wilmington, NC, in September 2018. Hurricane Florence had just brought destructive winds, storm surge, torrential rains, and excessive flooding.

Volunteers work many hours each shift during a deployment.

OBR had taken over the huge parking lot of a vacant shopping complex, where trailers, campers, tents, and cookers had been assembled to feed people devastated by the hurricane as well as first responders and other emergency personnel who were providing help to those affected by the hurricane. At its peak, OBR served 30,000 meals a day as it used six massive cookers that can handle 2,000 pounds of meat at a time. Before leaving Wilmington, the nonprofit served 320,000 meals – and thousands of pounds of turkey, pork and beef – in 18 days. Other volunteer groups such as the Salvation Army distributed the food at sites throughout the area.

Volunteers with Salvation Army provide hot meals at a distribution site.

While in Wilmington, its longest deployment, OBR surpassed its 2 millionth meal since 2011, when it was founded to serve residents of Joplin, Missouri, that had been devastated by a tornado. Since then, it has quickly expanded and now mobilizes teams to any area of the United States where a natural disaster has struck. I have just signed up to be an OBR volunteer and hope to contribute to OBR’s mission soon.

Large quantities of barbecue meals are picked up and delivered throughout an area devastated by a natural disaster.

Operation BBQ Relief has created a different image of barbecue than the usual one of someone enjoying a simple meal with meat slowly cooked. OBR’s quick response to those in need gives a new significance to the question, “Want some hot barbecue?”

Hot barbecue cooked by OBR is a welcome meal by many people after a hurricane has struck.