National Weather Service teams were fanning out Monday to five communities to determine if the ruined homes and broken trees were caused by tornadoes.
By late Monday afternoon, the NWS confirmed an EF0-EF1 tornado hit in Person County.
Officials say it touched down along Fire Tower Road off Moores Mill Road and strengthened to EF1 near Medford Oakley Road. An EF0 is 65mph-85mph and an EF1 is 86mph-110mph.
Weather service investigators also spent the day viewing damage thought to be caused by a tornado packing winds of up to 120 miles an hour that hit the Davidson County community of Linwood.
A handful of people reported injuries.
In one High Point neighborhood, walls and roofs were torn off houses.
ABC 11 viewers in Person County sent in photos of trees ripped out of the ground. Some fell on homes causing damage.
Hundreds of lightning strikes have been reported, as well as high winds, hail and heavy rain. Tornado watches and warnings were issued throughout the night for several counties between Charlotte and Greensboro.
WCNC-TV reported that a resident of a mobile home park in the Belmont-Mount Holly area was taken to a hospital after suffering a heart attack. Hartfield said eyewitnesses have spotted several tornadoes, though none has been confirmed. She said the weather service would send out a team on Monday to investigate. Northern Georgia also was hit with heavy storms.
Davidson County Sheriff David Grice said that the chairman of the Board of Commissioners declared a state of emergency there. Grice said that the sheriff's office needed that authority to evacuate people from unsafe mobile homes.
The Charlotte Observer reported that much of the roof of the Parkdale Fiber Distribution Center in Belmont was blown off and ended up in trees, along with ribbons of yellow foam insulation. Trees were knocked down throughout the Belmont-Mount Holly area and elsewhere.
Mitch Carmichael told the newspaper he was in his mobile home when he felt the structure shake.
He says it "sounded like a mini-Hugo," referring to Hurricane Hugo that struck in 1989.
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