No politics today this morning, folks. Just time to offer your prayers for those who were killed or injured on Saturday, and to their families
A violent storm system slashed across central North Carolina on Saturday with apparent tornadoes touching down, causing multiple deaths and leaving a wide swath of property damage, downed trees, power outages and suburban chaos in its wake.
The National Weather Service received unconfirmed reports of at least 10 deaths in all, and more than 70 tornado sightings in 19 counties.
“More than likely we had eight tornadoes in North Carolina,” said Gail Hartsfield, a meteorologist in the weather service Raleigh office.
WRAL reports that there could be up to 2 dozen dead across the state. Many, many pictures and video at WRAL and the News And Observer (top link) websites.
Three people died in the Stony Brook mobile home park in northeast Raleigh, city officials said. At least one man died in Sanford. Another death was reported in Cumberland County. The Bladen Journal reported three deaths in Bladen County.
That mobile home park is only 2, maybe 3 miles away from where I live on the east side of Raleigh. Not to far away from the Stony Brook, there is a small industrial park right off I-440 right before New Bern ave that was completely trashed, siding, roofing, materials, trees, vehicles, you name it. That’s right where I often get off 440 (Yonkers Rd, if you want to Google Map it in Raleigh) and take a back road home.
And, yes, I am fine, thank you to many, many people who emailed me and reached out in other ways. I work on the NW side of Raleigh, and mostly all we got was heavy rain and wind. Most of our expensive cars were moved inside just in case, and, when were moving them back, it started to hail on the tail end of the system. Right as I was moving a $42k Porsche Cayman. Y’all probably saw and heard more news than I did. Heck, my father in NJ saw more on the news than I did. Interestingly, I have a tiny portable TV, haven’t used in years, yet, it still wouldn’t work, because of that stupid digital airwave conversion project.
At home, the wind was enough to blow a heavy table off my patio, and the power was out from 330pm to 1125pm.
At least 25 have been killed by the storm across 6 states. Here’s time lapsed video of the tornado in downtown Raleigh.
Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.
Living on Florida’s coastline, I have a good idea what you guys are dealing with. Pictures never truly show the whole story.
Unless you go through it and see it, you just cannot understand the power and devastation a tornado or hurricane can bring. One minute you are fine and the next minute you, your home, your friends and your lives are spread out over miles of territory.
Glad you are safe and my thoughts and prayers go out to you and the folks in your community.
What terrible news! My prayers are with those in the Raleigh area.
Thanks, GT and Maggie. It cam be scary and youre right about living thru it. Been thru many hurricanes, tornadoes, mega tstorms, etc, and they are all scary. At least this was during day. Night is much worse
Glad to hear that you’re okay, Admiral.