By Paul Garber and Bertrand M. Guti, Winston-Salem Journal, N.C.
May 9--GREENSBORO -- Authorities began combing through the wreckage today caused by a reported tornado that killed one person and injured three others in the Triad.
A possible tornado touched down on the outskirts of Greensboro late Thursday as severe storms swept across the Southeast, damaging homes and businesses in at least three other states.
Earlier in the day, an apparent tornado also wrecked a shopping area in Mississippi and strong winds flipped a mobile home in Alabama. In south-central Tennessee, at least four homes and a few barns were damaged.
In North Carolina, a person in a small truck was killed after the vehicle was overturned in a parking lot west of Greensboro, said Alan Perdue, emergency services director for Guilford County.
A law-enforcement official said this morning that the man was outside the truck and it blew over on him.
The storm also knocked down a wall at a distributing business, sending one person to the hospital, Perdue said. Two other people were hurt while in vehicles, but details were not immediately available, Perdue said. None of the injuries was considered life threatening.
The storm left numerous trees and power lines down, some on top of homes, in its wake. Authorities were also combing through wreckage in a mostly industrial area outside of Greensboro, and getting a better look at the damage as daylight broke.
According to the Greensboro News & Record, the commercial and industrial area in Guilford County around U.S. 421, Interstate 40, N.C. 68 and Sandy Ridge Road has been shut off to traffic and employees, Greensboro Assistant Fire Chief David Douglas said at a press conference this morning.
West Market Street is also closed in that area.
Roads have been closed in Clemmons and more than 14,000 Duke Energy customers in Davie and Forsyth counties remain without power.
The city/county Office of Emergency Management said this morning that Frye Bridge Road in Clemmons will be closed at Cooper Road and at Loop Road. Dock Davis Road at Idols Road is also blocked.
The roads are not expected to be re-opened until Saturday morning. Residents are the only people that will be allowed to enter the Frye Bridge Road area, Emergency Management officials.
As of 8:20 a.m., 7,804 Duke Energy customers were without power in Forsyth County. Duke Energy reported on its Web site that 6,232 Davie County customers and 1,085 outages in Guilford County.
Jan Jackson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's office in Blacksburg, Va., said there were three preliminary reports of tornadoes in the area. One was in Clemmons, the other two in western Guilford County. Investigators will be in the area today to try to confirm the tornado reports, Jackson said.
An apparent tornado also wrecked a shopping area in Mississippi and strong winds flipped a mobile home in Alabama. In south-central Tennessee, at least four homes and a few barns were damaged.
Reports of damaged houses, fallen trees, flooding and road accidents came in last night from Surry County in the north, Guilford County in the east and Davie County in the south.
Weather officials reported winds as high as 60 mph, and at least one tornado in Clemmons.
WGHP/FOX8 reported wind shears at 103 mph when the storm moved through Davie and Forsyth counties.
In Guilford County, three tractor-trailers were blown off eastbound Interstate 40 near N.C. 68 shortly after 11:30 p.m., the N.C. Highway Patrol reported.
The storms started marching through about 8 p.m. and were still hitting some areas of the Triad at midnight. The weather service reported that 4 inches of rain fell on southern Forsyth County by that time; 3 inches fell in the area around Smith Reynolds Airport in Winston-Salem.
In Surry County, a line of storms raced through Elkin, Dobson and Mount Airy. The conditions were right for tornados. Some residents reported seeing at least three funnel clouds, but there was no confirmed touch down of a tornado, said John Shelton, Surry's director of emergency services.
"We were very fortunate," he said. "It was a very dangerous situation."
There were trees down on roadways and power lines. Most of the damage was limited to outbuildings. There were no reports of any damage to major structures, Shelton said.
Robert Stonefield, a meteorologist with the weather service, said that strong winds knocked down power lines in Yadkinville.
Hail and-tornado storms aren't unheard of in the spring, said Barrett Smith, a weather-service meteorologist. But they aren't common, either. He said that there are usually about 10 to 20 a year, on average.
"They don't happen all the time, but the fact that it is moving through Clemmons, Winston-Salem and Greensboro, it probably will enhance the damage because it is moving through such a populated area," Smith said.
The weather forecast for today includes a chance of showers and thunderstorms before 2 p.m., turning mostly cloudy with temperatures in the high 70s.
The storm system that rolled through North Carolina last night began earlier in the week in the Midwest when cold and warm air combined to form a front, Smith said.
"This is the time of year when we get this type of thing," he said.
By Paul Garber and Bertrand M. Gutierrez
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
-----
To see more of the Winston-Salem Journal, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.journalnow.com.
Copyright (c) 2008, Winston-Salem Journal, N.C.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
