CAPE CHARLES, Va. — Albert Thorn awoke in his rental cottage Thursday to the sound of heavy rain and wind. Then, there was screaming. Within minutes, the sky turned dark, cellphones pinged with emergency messages and a tornado tore through a popular campground, ripping awnings from trailers and flipping RVs on their sides.

A couple from New Jersey was killed when a tree fell on their tent. Their 13-year-old son, in a tent next to them, had life-threatening injuries. He was among three dozen people hurt.

“I love thunderstorms, and I went out to see it,” said Thorn, of Monroeville, New Jersey. “There was a wall of gray — wind and rain. It was coming through the trees right at us. By then, we shut the sliding door and it was pounding them windows like you couldn’t believe. You could hear people screaming before it even got to us.”

When the tornado hit about 9 a.m. EDT, more than 1,300 people were at Cherrystone Family Camping and RV Resort along the Chesapeake Bay, a 300-acre playground of swimming pools, mini-golf, pier fishing, crabbing and other activities on the state’s Eastern Shore.

Hospitals prepared for mass casualties, but they did not come. Injuries ranged from cuts to broken bones to life threatening, said Virginia State Police Spokeswoman Corinne Geller.

“All hell broke loose,” said Joe Colony, a Stephensville, Maryland, resident who has been coming to the campground for 30 years. “We got an emergency message on a cellphone and within 30 seconds, the thing hit and it blew down 40, 50 trees in the park.”