From Laura Lavigne, Nia Harden and Adam Owens, WRAL reporters
Lukama, North Carolina – Thousands of customers were without electricity in Wake and Wilson counties on Friday morning, where strong winds tore off the roof of a Lukama home overnight and knocked down a 60-foot tree in Garner.
Although not all were affected by thunderstorms during the night, areas east of Wake County were hit hardest on Friday morning.
Some of the worst damage is east of the Triangle near Rocky Mount and Wilson, where Wilson Energy said more than 14,000 customers were without electricity at 5 a.m. – more than a third of their customers.
Randy Senzig, an ecology teacher at Fuquay High School, has owned Southern Wake County with his family since the late 1800s. He uses his large oak in his front yard to teach students about nature.
“We will meet here under the big oaks,” he said. “We were the guardians of this tree.”
But Friday night’s storm can’t be compared to one of the largest trees in southern Wake County.
“I am in mourning,” Senzig said. “He was a friend.”
Schools in Wilson County will be closed on Friday because storms caused power outages in schools across the county, officials said. Across the state, about 24,000 customers were without electricity in North Carolina.
About 6,000 customers were without electricity in Wake County, south of Raleigh and the Garner area.
The owner of a house near Lake Wheeler Road told WRAL News that a tree broke through the window in his young son’s bedroom, but the boy was not there when it happened.
A 60-foot tree also fell in Garnier’s Grissom Farms neighborhood, simply missing the family’s vehicles, according to the owner, and Sky 5 flew over a home in Stoniford Court at Raleigh Manor Ridge, where a tree fell on the roof of a large home. In the video you can see debris and sunbeds in the family pool.
In Johnston County, Smithfield, a family sent WRAL News a video of their trampoline blowing through their backyard and crashing into their home.
Viewers shared photos of a big hailstorm in Apex videos, a video of an intense light strike over WakeMed in Raleigh.
There were several closed roads in southern Wake County early Friday morning:
- Parkway Drive closed between Jennifer Drive and Brookwood Drive
- Ten Ten Road closed between Fanny Brown Road to Mountain Drive
- Rand Road closed from Brothers Way to Ponderosa Circle
- Crowder Road closed between Ashwood Road and Ten Ten Road
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