IREDELL COUNTY, N.C. – Hundreds of people woke up Thursday without power after severe weather ripped through the Charlotte area.
According to Duke Energy, over 500 customers were in the dark in Mecklenburg County at 5 a.m. Thursday. By 6:30 a.m., Duke estimated that only about 40 people were without electricity.
But the biggest impacts of Wednesday’s storms was felt in Iredell County, where several homes were ripped apart and left unrecognizable after a possible tornado touched down. One home’s roof was totally blown away during the storm.
Tornado Video from Cools Springs, NC in Iredell Co around 3:45pm. via Tim Meadows #ncwx @NWSGSP pic.twitter.com/FS0WSMiknY
— Brad Panovich (@wxbrad) May 24, 2017
Officials with the Red Cross said two homes were destroyed, while another 30 received damage.
“It destroyed the house, just, you don’t know what to think,” said Shane Summers. “Never seen anything like that before.”
A man driving down Hunters Ridge Road said his car was picked up, twirled around, and thrown into a neighbor’s yard. Miraculously, he was uninjured.
The National Weather Service said it will be dispatching survey crews to examine the damage left behind in Iredell and Davie counties Thursday, as well as Union County. During Wednesday’s outbreak of strong storms, Tornado Warnings were issued in Alexander, Burke, Iredell, Rowan, and Union counties in our area.
Union Co Damage @NWSGSP pic.twitter.com/TxlZb1I5sa
— Sarah Fortner (@SarahFortnerWx) May 24, 2017
Back in Charlotte, Mother Nature gave motorists quite the headache on their drive home. A tree fell in the middle of I-77 near Nations Ford Road, causing major delays.