Overview:
• Emergency officials were waiting for the National Weather Service to confirm if the storm included a tornado. The possible tornado was one of several reported in North Carolina as remnants of Hurricane Isaias moved through the state.
• 3,032 homes, businesses and other customers of Fayetteville Public Works Commission lost power. Duke Energy reported about 255 lost power.
• A family’s pet turkey was killed by a fallen tree.
Severe weather damaged a retail area on Skibo Road and homes in north Fayetteville on Sunday in what could have been a tornado.
The storm damaged an area including Walmart and Sam’s Club on Skibo Road shortly after noon. The severe weather also damaged homes, cars, and other property across the city’s north side. It was one of several possible tornadoes that moved through North Carolina in the remains of Hurricane Isaias.
There were no major injuries reported, said Capt. Stephen Shakeshaft of the Fayetteville Fire Department. A person in an overturned van in the Walmart parking lot was in stable condition after being taken to a hospital, he said. And a man said his family lost a pet turkey when a tree fell on it.
The fire department on Sunday was waiting for the National Weather Service to confirm if a tornado touched down, Shakeshaft said.
The Fayetteville Public Works Commission said 3,032 of its customer locations lost power when a tree knocked down power lines. As of midafternoon Sunday, Duke Energy had about 255 homes and businesses in Fayetteville with power out.
Around 11:35 to 11:40 a.m., Weather Service alerts buzzed cell phones with a tornado warning for Hoke and Cumberland counties. Weather radar showed rain moving in a rotational pattern, WRAL meteorologists reported, which can be a sign of a tornado. Shortly after noon, the meteorologists reported the radar detected airborne debris in Fayetteville.
Some of the debris came from Parris Hopkins’ neighborhood in the Blanton Road area. Downed trees and powerlines and damaged roofs marked the storm’s path.
“I heard a rolling—something like a freight train,” Hopkins said. “And I was like, ‘That can’t be the helicopters on Fort Bragg flying around on Sunday in the rain.’ I looked out the window. I saw the trees start waving. I ran to the inside closet in front of the bathroom.
“That’s when I heard it come right over the house,” he said. “You can hear twisting trees and stuff falling and everything. It was like a loud whistle. I said, ‘Oh yeah, it’s here.’
“Less than a minute, gone. Less than a minute. I said, ‘Wow!’”
Hopkins got his chainsaw out to turn the downed trees in his yard into logs to be hauled away. His house had relatively little damage compared to his neighbors’.
Across the street, falling trees hit Nay Reed’s two cars and her home. Friends came by to help pull the limbs off.
“We heard the rumbling,” she said. “But then, by the time I looked out the window, the trees was just blowing. And it went pretty quick, but it did a lot of damage.”
Next door to Reed, Rob and Judy Salinovich tried to take cover as the tornado approached. “We’d seen this before—when you have green lightning and purple sky—that there’s a tornado somewhere,” Rob Salinovich said.
The Salinoviches were housesitting for their daughter, who was on vacation with her husband, Rob Salinovich said. Judy made it into the bathroom to lay flat in the tub. He didn’t, he said.
“It just came through super fast, and the whole house just shuddered. And inside, there’s spider cracks everywhere,” Salinovich said.
A massive tree landed on the roof. Trees also smashed cages where the Browns keep chickens, ducks, and turkeys. One of the turkeys was killed, Salinovich said.
Damage in the Skibo Road retail area included an overturned tractor trailer, the overturned van, the roof of the TownePlace Suites by Marriott, and the roof of the Walmart, Shakeshaft said. Overturned HVAC units caused a gas leak, he said.
In April 2011, a tornado smashed and leveled swaths of western and northern Fayetteville amid an outbreak of 62 tornadoes in 20 counties, WRAL reported at the time.
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
