High winds reaching over 60 mph caused significant damage across central North Carolina, particularly in Wayne County and Rocky Mount yesterday. A wind gust of 52 mph was also recorded at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro. These strong gusts were powerful enough to rip off roofs from structures at a turkey farm in the La Grange area, with debris hitting a pickup truck and a mobile home off I-42 west of Goldsboro, as confirmed by CBS 17.
Trouble also brewed in Rocky Mount, where the Flying Iron Harley Davidson dealership suffered from the severe weather conditions; Lizzie Skinner, an employee there, detailed the unsettling sequence of events culminating in a portion of the dealership's siding being torn away by the wind, though she noted, "we are super, super blessed that it didn't cause anybody to get hurt" in a statement obtained by ABC11.
In Fayetteville, the Cape Fear Valley Medical Center also experienced the wrath of Sunday's storms, causing damage that resulted in shattered windows on the seventh floor with no reported injuries, the hospital swiftly moved to ensure patient safety and begin repairs according to Chaka Jordan, vice president of marketing and communications for the hospital, in a report from WRAL. The chaotic weather also wreaked havoc at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, inducing over 150 flight delays and numerous cancellations as travelers found themselves at the mercy of the unpredictable climate which though it did not result in any casualties has nonetheless cast a palpable sense of disruption over the region.
