Storm levels home in Duplin
By Steve Herring
Published in News on September 9, 2014 1:46 PM
KENANSVILLE -- A Duplin County woman escaped serious injury Monday afternoon when a strong storm literally brought her house down around her.
Two people received minor injuries in the storm that damaged two houses and a mobile home in an area along Pasture Branch Road just east of Rose Hill in the Greenevers community.
"It came out of nowhere," Duplin County Emergency Medical Services Director Rob McDuffie said this morning. "We were not under any kind of watch. I got the call about 5:15 that we had a tornado. One house is pretty much in pieces. A woman was in the kitchen area and with virtually no warning (the storm) took the house down around her.
"It was weird. It is the first time in my career we had one without having any kind of warning. The damage is extensive and localized. If it was a tornado, it wasn't on the ground for long, thank goodness."
The Red Cross provided shelter overnight for the storm victims, McDuffie said.
The National Weather Services sent out a team this morning to assess the damage.
"We will put out information later," said Scott Kennedy, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Morehead City. "If we think it was a tornado, we will rate what the strength was."