Fast-moving, powerful storms move through central NC
RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- A big cleanup is underway in the Triangle after strong storm sent trees crashing to the ground Tuesday evening in Wake and Durham counties.
One man was mowing his backyard when a tree fell right on his Wishart Street home in Raleigh.
"I just happened to be looking that way. and I heard the boom and the tree came tumbling down," said Rives Tunstall.
Luckily, his wife wasn't sitting in the bedroom at the time; she was in the living room.
"I see it every day on television but when it hits home, then you realize what it's like. Especially you're old like I am," said the 88-year-old Tunstall.
He said he's lived in the house for 50 years.
"I gotta get up ... the mess when I feel like in a few minutes," he said. "I don't want to do much until I get the insurance company out here."
The storm also uprooted a huge tree on Saint Mary's Street in Raleigh near Glenwood Drive. Crews are working through the night to get the tree removed in time for morning traffic.
Police blocked a road off Louisburg Road as well after the storm sent limbs tumbling. And at Pullen Park in Raleigh, heavy rain and lightning strikes sent families scrambling for home.
In Durham County, firefighters needed chainsaws to clear trees from Doc Nichols Road.
Also in Durham County, Zulma Galdamez came home to a tree toppled next to her home on Birch Drive.
Above all, she's thankful her children weren't in the swing that used to hang from the fallen tree.
"It wasn't horrible," Galdamez said. "We'll have to do some cleaning but thank God my husband is able to take care of it."
Coincidentally, her husband trims trees for a living.
"I said you're a tree guy, and a tree fell on one of those storms ... he just laughed and said you never know when earth is going to do what it wants," she said.
Most of the showers moved out of the area by 8 p.m.
