NWS confirms EF1 tornado touched down in Wendell

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Tuesday, April 17, 2018
Tornado confirmed in Wendell area
A woman was lucky to escape when a tree crashed into her living room.

WENDELL, NC (WTVD) -- The National Weather Service confirmed Monday night that an EF1 tornado touched down in Wendell on Sunday.

The NWS said the twister touched down about five miles north-northwest of Wendell. The estimated maximum wind speed was 87 mph. Numerous trees were uprooted and several pines were snapped off. A few homes sustained damage to roof shingles and siding.

But one Wendell family is lucky things weren't worse when a tree crashed through the roof of a home.

A woman told ABC11 on Monday that she was watching TV on Sunday night when she got up to close the window on the back side of her mobile home in the 600 block of Rees Lane.

When she went to sit back down, a tree came crashing through that window and the middle of her room - just missing her.

Her daughter next door heard the commotion and came running over to her mom's home to find her mother sitting in the chair in shock.

Quite the fright, but a fortunate escape.

READ MORE: One dead after tornado hits Guilford County

A preliminary storm survey is being conducted Monday in the Raleigh area, including in Rolesville, Wendell and Zebulon, for possible tornado damage.

PHOTOS: Tornado rips through Greensboro

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Thousands of Triangle residents were without power after the storm roared through, but Duke Energy had restored virtually all power in Wake County as of Monday evening.

View Duke's interactive outage map

READ MORE: Power outages reported: Here's what you need to do