This afternoon, not long after the daughter and I got back from our weekly sushi trip, I sat down in front of the computer and noticed I had a Weather Bug alert. Brought it up and saw on the radar that a line of storms was headed our way, and were at the western edge of the county. We got quite a bit of rain, but not really much wind or lightning. Now after the 3rd person from work txted me to ask if we were ok, I started to wonder what was up. But, in the meantime, I had decided to work on preparing my outfit for the cantata at church tomorrow and realized that the white shirt I bought didn’t button all the way up to the collar like I needed. So off to JC Penney the daughter and I went. Texting to me continued in Penney’s, and then we went into Hallmark for a bit. That’s where I heard the ladies working there talking about relatives going to be staying with them. But I didn’t ask what was up. Then the daughter reminds me as we are about to leave the parking lot that she still needed a gym bag and could we go back to Hibbet. That’s where I got the text that “Lowes and Tractor Supply are gone.” 😯 I was checking out at the time and I said “Holy crap! No wonder people keep texting me to ask if I’m alright.” Cashier said “You don’t know about the tornado? East Sanford is gone.” 😯
Against my better judgement, I let the daughter talk me into driving across town to see it. Police had traffic blocked well around Lowes, but I went down the highway about a half mile north, and OMG!
4th person from work just texted me asking if I was ok. At least now I know why.
Storms pummel NC, at least five dead
I had heard (second hand) from someone from church that about 20 were killed. Thankfully (and hopefully), looks like not that many. All the power outages around, and our power didn’t so much as flicker. Wow.
Wow! Well, I’m glad you’re all alright. Weather has been really weird lately, that’s for sure.
I had just driven through the path earlier in the morning. I’ve driven that “back street” path to Walmart many times, and really don’t pay much attention, but I remember looking at the Static Control factory, noting it even moreso than any other business on that street. I read in the Sanford Herald that it was ruined too.
I’m glad that you are around to tell us this story. Be well.
My husband slept through it, but it really wasn’t bad at all at our house. Storms that come as us from that direction though tend to split right before getting to us and go around. So to the north and the south of us get hit hard when we hardly get anything.
That is SOOO SCARY. and you were just out driving around, shopping, oblivious!
Oh yeah, because before I went over to the church for Men’s breakfast/food bank distro, I checked the radar, and there was some rain to the west (ready to hit just about time we would be passing out the food bags), but it never did really do much more than sprinkle in the morning. Well, except when we came out of Walmart with stuff I didn’t want wet. lol But by the time I got to the 421 bypass at 42 (which is the area I took those photos) the sun was out, so I thought the weather was over, and we headed up to Chapel Hill. The shopping center across from Lowe’s is where Walmart was up until a couple years ago when they built the new supercenter about a mile east.
Yeah, all through the path that morning. I pointed to a picture of the damaged Lowe’s and said “Right there. My favorite section. The power tools. Right in the center of the destruction.” 😮
It’s really unfortunate how cruel the weather can be sometimes. Hope everyone affected by it are able to get back on their feet soon and may those who died rest in peace.