Severe weather leaves central North Carolina mostly unharmed

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Friday, March 19, 2021
NC weather: When severe weather will arrive today
NC weather: When severe weather will arrive todayThe National Weather Service of Raleigh began surveying damages on Friday morning and confirmed that three tornadoes touched down in Orange, Guilford and Alamance counties.

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- Severe weather warnings dotted the central North Carolina on Thursday, but the majority of the region escaped unharmed.

Despite several tornado warnings, the only damage report in the region happened in Orange County.

In the Cedar Grove neighborhood, trees were uprooted, roofs were damaged, a basketball hoop was snapped in half and a trampoline was seen flying down the street.

Taelor Chrisco and her mom huddled in the bathroom as the storm wreaked havoc outside their home.

"Our power started flashing and then the power just went out and then it got really loud. And it sounded like all kinds of stuff was hitting our house. And I thought something fell on our house. It was so loud," Chrisco recalled.

Their hay barn is no longer standing, a truck was flipped over and moved 6 feet away, and insulation from another house now covers the tree branches like snow

The good news: nobody was hurt.

"To know everybody is OK is a miracle. I don't know how it wasn't our house. I'm just so glad it wasn't our house. All this can be replaced, we can't," Chrisco said.

Farther west in North Carolina, the storms caused a bit more damage. Possible tornadoes were reported in Guilford and Alamance counties.

Videos along Interstate 40 in Alamance County show a large funnel cloud moving through the area. An apartment complex in the area reportedly sustained as much as $1 million in damage.

Possible tornadoes hit in Guilford and Alamance counties on Thursday.

The National Weather Service is deploying a survey team to look at the damage and determine if it was caused by a tornado or straight line winds.

That team will start looking at damage in Guilford County at 8 a.m. and then work its way east.

The storms moved out of the region by Thursday night, but some rain will linger into Friday.

Temperatures Friday started in the 50s but will actually get colder as the day goes on. You can expect it to also be rather breezy for most of the day.

Saturday and Sunday will see temperatures in the 50s, with more sun Saturday and more warmth Sunday.