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| Situation Update No. 1 Ref.no.: TO-20100329-25498-USA
Situation Update No. 1
On 2010-03-29 at 13:05:52 [UTC]
Event: Tornado
Location: USA State of North Carolina Western area Situation: Violent storms spawned up to eight tornadoes overnight Sunday that injured at least a dozen people, displaced more than 70 others and damaged dozens of homes and businesses. The storms churned north from Charlotte through the Triad and up to Person County. Rougemont resident Michelle Hines said that she and her husband were asleep in their Stony Mountain Road home when they were awakened by two calls from WRAL's WeatherCall service. "First one we heard, it was a thunderstorm warning. I said, 'OK, (WRAL Chief Meteorologist) Greg (Fishel), thanks very much. I'm going to bed,'" Hines said. "But when he called back and said tornado warning, I said, 'OK, let's get up and see what's going on.'" Hines and her husband turned on the TV news, and she went to look out the back door. "I heard just the most God awful roar," she said. "Then all of a sudden, the glass in the storm door was just shattered." Shards of glass flew after the couple as they ran into a bathroom. Two tall pine trees crashed into the front of their house.The National Weather Service was investigating a report of a tornado near the Hines' house, as well as seven other reports of possible tornadoes in Mecklenburg, Davidson, Guilford, Forsyth and Ga ston counties. Straight-line winds also caused damage in Rowan County, and hail as big as golf balls was reported. WFMY News reports that about a dozen people were injured and 70 people displaced in Davidson County. Between 20 and 30 homes were also damaged in High Point. Emergency workers rescued a paraplegic man who was trapped inside his partially crushed home. A motorist recorded a funnel cloud near Interstate 85 in Spencer, north of Charlotte. WBTV reported major wind damage at a shopping center on U.S. Highway 29 in Spencer. The facade was blown off a Food Lion store and ended up about 100 feet away. WJZY General Manager Shawn Harris said the storm blew trees down and damaged the Charlotte television station's building. The weather service reports that a woman suffered non-life-threatening injuries when winds tore the roof off a building and tossed it into a mobile home park near Belmont. Hines said that she was grateful that advance warning from WRAL WeatherCall helped her escape greater injury. "I would have been fast asleep had it not been for that WeatherCall," she said. |  | | | |
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