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Sunset Beach, North Carolina – At least three people died when a possible tornado hit Brunswick County before midnight, leaving a trail of damage.
The Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office said the tornado hit the Seaside Road and US Highway 17 area between 11:30 p.m. Monday and midnight. She was on the ground for about 30 minutes.
More than 50 homes were damaged, most in the Ocean Ridge Plantation neighborhood of Ocean Isle Beach, where the three dead and at least 10 injured have been reported.
“I’ve seen havoc that I haven’t seen in many years,” said Randy Thompson, chairman of the Brunswick County Council of Commissioners, at a noon press conference. “It was truly a disaster last night.”
Edward Conrow, director of emergency services for Brunswick County, said search and rescue efforts were completed by Tuesday morning and officials were conducting damage assessments.
Damage reports also included gas leaks, damaged commercial buildings, and downed trees and power lines along US 17 and Old Shallotte Road, Conrow said.
The National Weather Service confirmed the twister to be an EF-3 tornado with winds of up to 160 mph. The tornado cut a path through Brunswick County and into Columbus County.
The tornado was particularly dangerous as many people were sleeping when the storm hit and didn’t have time to prepare, Conrow said.
“We had a very minimal warning,” he said, noting that the storm was already on the ground by the time the weather service alerted local authorities. “[Weather Service meteorologists] were very surprised at how quickly this storm intensified. It’s something they don’t normally see. “
Kate Gentle, a Brunswick County resident, who lives five minutes from where the tornado hit, told WRAL News that she spent Monday night at her son’s lacrosse game and that she had no idea there would be a storm.
According to Gentle, when the family returned home, they experienced heavy, regular thunder and lightning. Then, said Gentle, everything calmed down. She put her kids in a closet and just before the tornado warning.
“You could tell something was wrong,” she said.
Gentle’s family and home escaped evil, but she said she was “heartbroken” for the people in her community who were not so lucky.
The Reverend Dwight Reeves, pastor of the Seaside Christian Fellowship, found the roof ripped off of his church on Tuesday morning.
“It’s life changing,” Reeves said of the storm. “You know things like this happen in life, but you never expect it to show up on your doorstep this time around. We always see other people destroyed in the neighborhood. Now, to see it, I have more compassion for these people. “
Church member Scott Blackmon went to help clean up Tuesday morning after escaping unharmed overnight.
“The wind and thunder increased with lightning, and we lost electricity,” said Blackmon, who lives less than a mile from the church. “We heard the roar and we literally jumped into the tub like you hear on TV.”
Sheriff John Ingram has asked people who are not homeowners or assisting victims to avoid the area while crews work to clear the streets.
Conrow said the sheriff’s office will be setting up access points to prevent non-residents from entering the Ocean Ridge area.
Corey Thurlow of Brunswick Electric Membership Corp. said the force of the storm caused extensive damage to the county’s transmission system by knocking down poles and trees and affected around 35,000 customers at its peak.
Electricity was restored to around 10,000 members by 2 a.m., Thurlow said, but some outages will be in place until Tuesday afternoon.
“Our priority is to restore power to all of our members in our service area as quickly and safely as possible,” Thurlow said. “Our hearts go out to the people who have suffered losses as a result of these storms.”
According to the U.S. census, approximately 140,000 people lived in Brunswick County in 2019.
The storm is part of the larger weather system that brings brutally cold temperatures to much of the United States, including a crippling ice storm that devastated Texas, causing massive blackouts.
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