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CHARLOTTE, NC — Stong winds, driving rain, and trees on top of houses.
Storms rolled through the area Friday afternoon, leaving people with a big mess to clean up this weekend.
People in Iredell County were under the gun.
“Trees were almost in the bending stage, bending back and forth,” says Statesville resident Cindy Cronce.
The storm came up quick, and packed a punch. Wind and rain whipping through. Gary Butts lives in Statesville. He was out in the backyard the when the weather rolled in.
“Just high winds, lightning, hail. It just came through. It was whirling. You couldn’t see five feet in front of your face,” says Butts. “It was incredibly loud. Trees snapping. Stuff falling everywhere.”
Eric Johnson got a call from his father, who lives next door, telling him to come home right away. Two trees were toppling, and threatening to fall on his house. Johnson and a friend tried to get some equipment to remove the trees. By the time they got back, it was too late.
“I was just praying that it would stay up, and we were all thinking the same thing: I hope it stays,” says Johnson. “And when it fell, it didn’t hit a big part of the house, so that all can be fixed. Everyone is okay.”
Johnson is now cleaning up the aftermath, and counting his blessings. He says no one in the neighborhood was hurt.
Gary Butts has seen his share of severe weather, and this ranks right up there with the worst.
“I’m going to tell you what, I’ve been around a lot of times and I’ve seen some tornadoes out in Kansas and everything else, and this was absolutely just as bad,” says Butts. “If this wasn’t it, it’s so close it should have been.”
The National Weather Service says straight line winds likely caused the damage in Iredell County.
