Damages caused by storm system
By John Joyce
Published in News on February 25, 2016 1:46 PM
The National Weather Service data cannot confirm it, but witnesses say what looked and sounded like a tornado touched down in Seven Springs Wednesday afternoon, tearing the roof off of a residence.
No one was injured, despite a woman and four small children being home at the time the storm hit.
Fast-moving storms barreled through Wayne County throughout most of the afternoon and into the evening. Much of the damage caused by high straight-line winds was confined to the southern portion of the county.
"I saw it. I can't say it was an actual tornado because of the (technical requirements), but it looked like a tornado," neighbor James Cully said.
National Weather Service meteorologist Mike Moneypenny said that agency crews would have to assess the damage before deciding whether the damage had been caused by a tornado or straight-line winds.
"We are going to have to come down and look at the damage,' he said. "We cannot speculate."
Cully, who's own family was secured in the bathroom of his home, stayed outside to monitor the storm. A second bystander said he heard the "typical freight train sound" associated with a tornado.
Cully said his family keeps survival radios linked to their cell phones and television for emergencies and were watching the weather on TV as the storm approached.
"We watched it come up from Indian Springs," he said.
As soon as the storm passed, Cully made his way across the street to the residence and helped the victims over to his house.
"I called 911 and went and got the family out of there," he said.
Part of the estimated 50-foot stretch of metal roofing that tore away from the home landed on top of Cully's fence, wrapping itself around the chain-link gate. The remaining wooden fence listed inward toward Cully's property.
Wet, tangled swaths of pink insulation littered the block along with debris blown off of trees.
Fire Chief Phil Shivar said reports of damage were coming in from the surrounding area, including downed tree limbs and power outages throughout pockets of Seven Springs and beyond.
"There are widespread power outages all over the Tri-County service area," he said Wednesday. "A main transmission line is down at Rones Chapel."
That same storm system is also being blamed for fourth deaths in Virginia.
"The severe weather in our service area broke 10 transmission poles on Garner Chapel Church Road near Mount Olive, which feeds power to members in northern Duplin, southern Wayne and western Lenoir counties," said Bob Kornegay, Tri-County manager of marketing and member services. "At the peak of the storm, we had over 6,000 people without power. However, we were able to restore power to the Mount Olive substation."
Most of Tri-County's customers had power by early this morning, but a few scattered outages were still being worked on, Kornegay said.
Wayne County schools dismissed at 11 a.m. Wednesday and county offices closed at 2 p.m. because of the threat of severe weather.
Spring Creek middle and high schools opened on a three-hour delay this morning because of a power outage.
The severe weather has passed, but the county remained under a wind advisory until 2 p.m. today.
The Wayne County chapter of the American Red Cross was alerted to assist the family.
Wayne County Sheriff Larry Pierce, whose deputies also responded to the scene, said the initial report came in that a house had been destroyed by a tornado.
"The second report said the house had blown into the highway," he said.