NORTH CAROLINA: tornadoes slam North Carolina

NORTH CAROLINA: tornadoes slam North Carolina

At least five people were killed Saturday as tornadoes ripped across North Carolina, raising the death toll from a three-day string of storms already blamed for killing 17 across the Midwest and South.

Roofs were ripped off stores, trees were plucked out of the ground and "scores" of homes were damaged across North Carolina, emergency management director Doug Hoell said. Tens of thousands were without electricity Saturday night.


Police in Raleigh evacuated residents at a mobile park, and emergency crews went door-to-door looking for people injured or trapped by the storm that flipped mobile homes from one side of the street to the other. The hardest hit areas included South Saunders Street near Western Boulevard and Interstate 40; the Stony Brook mobile home park near Trawick Road; neighborhoods surrounding Shaw University; and the areas near Buffaloe and New Hope roads and Yonkers Road. Dozens of people were saved at a Lowe's home improvement store in Sanford, N.C., when a manager corralled staff and customers them into the back of the store to avoid what witnesses described as an approaching "wall of churning debris and wind," which flattened the front of the building. No injuries were reported.