Reported tornadoes, severe storms down trees, damage homes

By Janine Bowen, WRAL digital journalist

Severe storms that spawned several reports of tornadoes left behind damage across the Triangle on Friday.

Over 8,000 power outages were reported in North Carolina during the peak of the story with more than half of them in the Triangle.

Tornadoes were confirmed to have touched down in Smithfield in Johnston County as well as in the Whitecross area in Orange County.

In Orange County, several trees were felled as a result of the storms and several were reported to have fallen on houses.

Todd McGee, the Orange County, community relations official said the county has received reports of damage, mainly in the area of Interstate 40 at Exit 261.

Sheriff Charles Blackwood said there was only one report of severe damage to a home and photos from the scene showed the roof had been torn off the house and furniture was strewn across the grass.

“It’s completely devastated, but nobody lives here. We’re very fortunate,” Blackwood said.

Several cars had been damaged by debris and multiple trees were blocking roads, but no injuries were reported.

“This is very devastating when you look at those trees. The ground was wet, but those are huge trees ripped up,” Blackwood said.

In Siler City, the winds demolished and blew the remains of a carport into the front yard of a home. Photos showed the roof of the structure remained at the side of the house while the metal siding blew and wrapped around a tree. Across the street, a tree had fallen on the roof of a house. No injuries were reported in either incident.

In Cumberland County, Assistant County Manager Sally Shutt said that trees were down across the county, including at least two that fell on houses. Several other trees fell on power lines, resulting in outages near the Cross Creek Mall in the area of Morganton Road, Bragg Boulevard and Sycamore Dairy Road.