Storms whip through area, leave damage,debris
Scattered strong to severe storms developed once again across the region Thursday evening, bringing torrential rain and damaging winds to parts of Central North Carolina.
Some areas experienced downed trees and power outages.
At the peak, nearly 3,300 Duke Energy customers were without power in Harnett County and more than 2,400 in Johnston County. Wayne County reported more than 2,300 outages.
Down in Johnston County, the Town of Benson said a power outage occurred shortly after 4:30 p.m., leaving over 700 customers in the dark. The outage was caused by heavy winds, rain and storm-related damage.
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In Dunn, strong wind and rain ripped through the area.
Raw video: Torrential rain and strong winds in Dunn. (Video courtesy of Benjamin Snow/ABC11 Eyewitness)
In Erwin, high winds also caused damage, knocking down trees and blowing debris into roadways.
A tree branch reportedly fell on a house in the 100 block of C Street, in Erwin, causing damage to the home, an older structure that had been converted to a duplex.
The branch fell when lightning struck the tree and caught it on fire. The flaming branch fell and started a fire on the home.
Two families were displaced. The American Red Cross was helping them find shelter.
ABC11 Meteorologist Steve Stewart says the weather pattern will remain generally the same as the past few days, as afternoon highs will once again creep into the lower and middle 90s this afternoon.
"The shower and thunderstorm activity that has developed during the afternoon hours this week will have a harder time getting into the Triangle despite the rather unstable air mass currently in place," he said. "Model guidance does suggest that some convective cells will develop to the west, north, and east of the region, but the actually city and surrounding suburbs could be spared the showers and thunderstorms today.
The beginning of the weekend looks to be a carbon copy of today, however as the afternoon processes, dew points will begin to fall from the middle 70s into the upper 60s by the afternoon.
The downward trend of these dew points will continue into the day on Sunday, which will make for a rather nice end to the weekend, with sunshine mixing with clouds and temperatures seasonably warm in the lower 90s.
