Triangle Area NC Check-In Plz!

[Radii]

That was god damn terrifying. A very large tornado plowed through downtown Raleigh, all of the local weathermen are describing this storm as something you'd normally see in the plains states, where the tornadoes that hit the ground are staying down for miles and miles. It sounds like there have been anywhere from 6-10 in the general area that have touched down and done some damage. Up in Wake Forest it got pitch black for about 20 minutes as winds and hail picked up and there was a loud rumbling sound that didn't stop for 7-8 minutes before it cleared back up into a more normal thunderstorm.

I haven't heard any reports of any deaths but it sounds like there have been a number of houses and buildings destroyed and tons of trees and probably power lines down.

Everyone ok?!

[GrantDawg]

Any more word on this? Sounds like horrific damage through downtown Raliegh all the way into Cary.

[stevew]

Hmm. Hopefully it left my friend Corey alone.

[GrantDawg]

The wife is checking out the pics. It looks like the area around Fort Bragg also took a lot of damage.

[Wolfpack]

Checking in okay here. I was basically one or two exits west on I-540 of where the tornado cut through northeast Raleigh. Close as I ever care to come.

The wife and I had been watching this one form up northwest of Fayetteville and based on watching how the track develop, this was the first time we started preparing like it might actually come through. Picked out a place on the bottom floor we thought would be best, then watched as the storm seemed to draw a line right into Raleigh. I went around unplugging things in case we had any sort of power surges, except the internet which we used as a lifeline to watch the goings-on on our PCs as WRAL was carrying their feed online. We got the girls into the safe place we had picked out, trying to calm their fears and getting them to treat it like they were camping since we let them bring blankets and their stuffed toys. When the storm finally broke, strangely enough the wind actually died down, but the rain came in torrents and we got pelted by hail for a bit. Nothing too big, but definitely pinging our windows pretty good. At this point I was listening to a simulcast of the TV broadcast on my Zune and let out a sigh of relief when they mentioned the tornado's possible location was passing off to the east and north of us. Pretty shortly afterwards, the rain let up and the skies started clearing.

There's been a lot of damage in Raleigh (not like the city's been leveled, but there's a nice scar of devastation running from southwest to northeast in the city. How the downtown core missed it, I'll never know. We're talking a matter of blocks from where the skyscrapers are to where it came through. There's also a lot more damage in the outlying areas, especially in Sanford and several small towns down east, including the town I grew up in in Johnston County. The tornadoes just formed up one after another across eastern North Carolina, each one a little further to the east than the last, so the one that rolled through Raleigh was one of the earlier ones in the day (there were a couple that formed up to the west and went through Orange County and then Person County), then later ones hit Fayetteville, Goldsboro, and Wilson. Mets are making comparisons to the big tornado outbreak we had back in 1984 as well as the tornado that rampaged through northwest Raleigh back in 1988.

I am counting blessings and saying prayers tonight.

[terpkristin]

Glad people from here are OK. Looks like it was a pretty beastly storm, based on what I see online. Being in the tornado that hit College Park was easily the scariest moment of my life.

Yipes.

/tk

[Radii]

I lost power for about 2 1/2 hours after the storm. My town (Wake Forest, north of Raleigh) seems perfectly fine, I just went out for a little while to drive around.

I've heard reports of 2 deaths both well east of the triangle area. There are parts of downtown Raleigh that have been closed off by police due to the amount of damage and danger from electrical lines and/or gas leaks. I have no idea how big of an area of downtown was affected. Local news is focusing on a strip of S Saunders St. which they describe as "having a number of auto parts/repair shops" where many buildings had their roofs torn off and contents thrown around the neighborhood.

The last I saw on power was ~40,000 people in the triangle area lost power and over 100,000 across the state.

I haven't heard officially how many tornadoes touched down either, everywhere damage is being reported its by a "severe storm possibly a tornado" but so many reports and videos from different parts of the state have me convinced that its a crazy number of this part of the country.

[molson]

Tornados scare the crap out me.

[Thomkal]

tornado warnings popped up all around Myrtle Beach all afternoon, but thankfully none of them reached here just south of MB. Had a lot of rain and wind, but no damage I think.

[Wolfpack]

Originally Posted by Radii

I lost power for about 2 1/2 hours after the storm. My town (Wake Forest, north of Raleigh) seems perfectly fine, I just went out for a little while to drive around.

I've heard reports of 2 deaths both well east of the triangle area. There are parts of downtown Raleigh that have been closed off by police due to the amount of damage and danger from electrical lines and/or gas leaks. I have no idea how big of an area of downtown was affected. Local news is focusing on a strip of S Saunders St. which they describe as "having a number of auto parts/repair shops" where many buildings had their roofs torn off and contents thrown around the neighborhood.

The last I saw on power was ~40,000 people in the triangle area lost power and over 100,000 across the state.

I haven't heard officially how many tornadoes touched down either, everywhere damage is being reported its by a "severe storm possibly a tornado" but so many reports and videos from different parts of the state have me convinced that its a crazy number of this part of the country.

The count is up to five dead now. Not sure what the official count of tornadoes will end up being, but maybe a dozen separate tornadic storms based on what I've seen. Whether they put down one single tornado each or multiple skipping tornadoes, I don't know, but it got pretty damn near insane with the warnings for several hours this afternoon.

The big news thing I've seen focused on is the Lowe's store that got destroyed down in Sanford. Also heard about the mess on South Saunders, which I'm actually pretty familiar with as it was the way we used to get into west Raleigh and the NC State campus area when we came up from Johnston County when I was growing up.

I was tempted when I went out to get dinner to have a peek and go east on 540 to see if there was a clear line where the tornado came through, but decided against it because I didn't want to get caught up in any kind of traffic situation. It was a little weird to go get dinner and everything seem completely normal when I knew all hell broke loose not too far from where I was standing.

Got lucky myself with power. The lights flickered a bit as I guess the transformers and other electrical systems started going down to our south and east, but the power stayed on through the storm.

Edit to add: if you want to see what happened to the Lowe's, go to newsobserver.com and find the link to the gallery related to the storm.

[albionmoonlight]

ok here in Cary. Lots of hail, but the tornado seemed to miss us.

[Swaggs]

Scary -- still hoping to hear from some friends.

Glad that you folks are alright.

[tyketime]

[quote=Wolfpack;2456417]The tornadoes just formed up one after another across eastern North Carolina, each one a little further to the east than the last, so the one that rolled through Raleigh was one of the earlier ones in the day (there were a couple that formed up to the west and went through Orange County and then Person County)/quote]

Oh my... that's where I grew up and my parents still live there

[SackAttack]

My brother (stationed at Lejeune) says his neighbors got walloped by the storm but that his place escaped largely unscathed.

[gstelmack]

Fine here in Cary. Much of Cary is protected by Jordan Lake to the west, seems to break up any major cells headed this way. We got a ton of rain, some lightning, and most of the wind was in front of the storm.

That said, we've got scattered insulation, roofing shingles, and other bits from Sanford and Holly Springs that the supercells picked up and carried for miles.

[britrock88]

I experienced the huge storm in Greensboro that actually preceded the tornadoes forming in the Burlington area. Lots of stuff (garbage bins, branches, power lines) thrown around by as-yet-unorganized wind. Saw an outlying garage that collapsed on two cars in a nice neighborhood.

Haven't noticed anything amiss in Chapel Hill since I got back.

[BigDPW]

Okay here in eastern wake county (east and a bit north of raleigh). About a mile and a half up my road toward wake forest (between me and Radii) was a half mile or so swath of houses that were leveled, moved off of there foundation, or roofs blown off. Had a couple friends within a few houses of the worst of it but they were all okay with just windows out and siding peeled off.

We too had the kids (4 and 2) in the bathroom Saturday for about 30 minutes. Tried not to make a big deal of it for them. They insisted they had to keep playing with their play-doh so they were doing that on the toilet lid while I huddled with the blanket ready to cover them. Our power was out until about midnight or a little after.

Our church building was right on the edge of that area of destruction I mentioned earlier and it was amazing to see two huge oak trees that were taken down root ball and all that are easily 4-6 ft diameter. They must have been there for 150-300 years... Survived all the hurricanes but didn't make it through this storm. I find that amazing.

The confirmed death toll in all of NC is now up to 22. 3 in Wake County (Raleigh metro area) two of which were young children in a trailer park just north of the beltline (downtown).

[fantom1979]

My parents live in Morrisville and came out unscathed. They said it was pretty damn scary.

[Peregrine]

I was fine but I was out of town when it happened - I was driving back from Florida this weekend and saw some of the tornado damage east of Raleigh though - really scary stuff.

[Wolfpack]

Originally Posted by BigDPW

Okay here in eastern wake county (east and a bit north of raleigh). About a mile and a half up my road toward wake forest (between me and Radii) was a half mile or so swath of houses that were leveled, moved off of there foundation, or roofs blown off. Had a couple friends within a few houses of the worst of it but they were all okay with just windows out and siding peeled off.

We too had the kids (4 and 2) in the bathroom Saturday for about 30 minutes. Tried not to make a big deal of it for them. They insisted they had to keep playing with their play-doh so they were doing that on the toilet lid while I huddled with the blanket ready to cover them. Our power was out until about midnight or a little after.

Our church building was right on the edge of that area of destruction I mentioned earlier and it was amazing to see two huge oak trees that were taken down root ball and all that are easily 4-6 ft diameter. They must have been there for 150-300 years... Survived all the hurricanes but didn't make it through this storm. I find that amazing.

The confirmed death toll in all of NC is now up to 22. 3 in Wake County (Raleigh metro area) two of which were young children in a trailer park just north of the beltline (downtown).

Sounds like you're on or near Forestville Road. I drove the stretch between Buffaloe and Mitchell Mill on Sunday and the devastation was pretty heavy through that area. I saw the house that got knocked backward off its foundation and had its garage destroyed is getting its 15 minutes of infamy as one of the images that Yahoo! has featured about the storm in its articles.

All told the NWS is now estimating about a dozen supercells spawned about twice that number in tornadoes across North Carolina on Saturday, by far the biggest outbreak since March, 1984. The two events were similar in size, but the 1984 outbreak had an F4 that pretty much leveled the town of Red Springs in the southern part of the state, while the NWS hasn't confirmed any higher than F3 in this outbreak. It's a bit remarkable the casualty count is lower this time considering the storms rolled through much more populated areas this time as compared to then, especially Raleigh and Wake County, which weren't affected at all in 1984.

Unfortunately, the toll went up one today as a six-month-old who was in the same trailer as the three kids who were killed when a tree fell on the trailer died of her injuries today.