Multiple tornadoes touch down across North Carolina as Tropical Storm Debby pushes through the state

Water rescue teams saved three children who got trapped in a creek.

It happened around 1:30 p.m. along Partridge Lane in Raleigh.

Mike Kallam noticed the three kids playing in Marsh Creek. He said he warned them that it wasn't safe to do that, but they continued.

Three children got trapped, clinging to a tree, in a fast-moving creek in Raleigh.

Several minutes later, he said he heard screaming.

He rushed outside his home and saw the three kids trapped, holding onto a tree as fast-moving water rushed past them and made it impossible to get to them.

"Unnerving, not to be able to do something. Because here I am 15 feet away from them and I can't reach them," Kallam said. "There's no way to get to them and no way to get some help."

Fortunately, there was help on the way. The neighbor and his wife called 911 and swift water rescue teams arrived to help.

They put a boat in the shallow, but fast-moving water and paddled out to the children. They then put them into the boat and pulled them to safety.

None of the kids were injured.

The kids -- Kelly, Evelyn, Emma, Gavin and Andrew (ranging in age from 8-12 -- said they stopped while riding their bikes to try and cross the creek. But once two of them got across, the other three were stuck on the wet and slick rocks.

"Andrew, Evie and me, we couldn't get across," Kelly described. "Andrew held on to a branch and then it snapped. So he fell down, and like, he slid down and he held on to, like, a tree trunk."

The children described being very scared too.

"When it was happening, it was really really scary," Evelyn said. "There were like rocks and sticks hitting our feet...right as she was about to slip off, the people grabbed her."

Gov. Roy Cooper held his second Tropical Storm Debby briefing Thursday after touring a middle school damaged in a tornado.

"Thank God the children were not there when this storm hit. What a devastating blow to this school," Cooper said.

NC Governor Roy Cooper gives updates on storm, tornadoes damage

Cooper spoke outside Springfield Middle School in Wilson County. He said the tornado devastated the 6th and 7th grade classrooms but left the 8th grade classrooms basically untouched.

"Looked like an explosion. The window was blown out. What was amazing to me was--a strong brick structure, how many different bricks were everywhere. An explosion is the best way to describe it," Cooper said.

He said school district leaders would be evaluating the school damage and working to develop a plan that allows students of the school to have minimal disruption to their education.

Also in Wilson County, a man was found dead inside his tornado-ravaged home. That man's identity has not been released.

"Wilson County just experienced a tough time, but we're going to get through it by the grace of God." Wilson County Sheriff Calvin L. Woodard, Jr. said.

Shortly after 11 a.m. Cooper, flanked by North Carolina Emergency Director Will Ray, spoke from an emergency center in Lenoir County.

"North Carolina continues to face unrelenting rain and destruction from tropical storm Debby," he said.

Cooper revealed that the state had activated another 24 National Guard members, increasing the total number to 374. Those members as well as other rescue teams have responded to multiple reports of tornado touchdowns throughout the eastern part of the state.

"We ask north Carolinians to be careful, to be safe, to pay attention to local officials. particularly if you live in low lying areas prone to flooding," Cooper said.

To read the full story, click here.

There is intense flooding in Festival Park in Fayetteville on Thursday.

Water can be seen racing along Ray Avenue into nearby grass and the parking lot. It -- at a point -- was knee-high.

The flooding has even forced a large chunk of the fencing down.

A nearby business owner told ABC11 he asked his employees to move their cars to higher ground.

Community parks, neighborhoods flooding from ongoing rounds of rain from Debby.

Fayetteville officials are nearby to make sure no one drives through the water.

In Chapel Hill, residents were asked to evacuate Camelot Village -- a community of condos-- due to flooding. This is located on S Estes Drive.

Property Manager Barbara Jaffee said they are doing their best to stop the water from entering the condos, such as using gel bags to create "a flood door."

"We've got the HVAC systems that are low to the ground, and we're gonna try to cover those for the folks that are not here," she said. "Otherwise, we don't want to burn up the units."