Severe weather produces little damage in area

Twin Counties Emergency management officials were breathing a sigh of relief on Monday afternoon after radar indicated possible rotation of a tornado in the Battleboro area at about 10 a.m.

That caused officials to issue a tornado warning, but no funnel clouds or tornadoes were confirmed by the National Weather Service in Raleigh.

And emergency management officials from both Nash and Edgecombe counties reported no major damage from the storm front.

“There was some wind damage, trees down, this morning around Nashville,” said Barrett Smith, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Raleigh. “There was no confirmation related to a tornado.”

He said the winds from the storm gusted to 60 miles 70 miles per hour.

“Typically we would have had more continuous damage if a tornado had touched down,” he said.

He said penny sized hail was reported in the Spring Hope area at 10:15 a.m.

Edgecombe County Emergency Services Director Butch Beach on Monday afternoon was answering questions from County Commissioners about whether the storm caused any major damage. He said he was pleased to inform them of the good news that there was none that was reported.

“I thought we were very, very lucky,” Beach said. “We were kind of holding our breath sitting here watching the radar. It was the signature (twister hook). It was pretty scary looking. Evidently, it never came down.”

Nash County officials were also breathing a sigh of relief.

“We did not have any reports of damage in our county,” said Nash Emergency Services Director Scott Rogers.

But the storm’s winds did cause some damage.

Tree limbs dented and scratched a pickup truck at the Down East Partnership for Children at 215 Lexington Street.

“I’ve never seen it (the wind) blow that hard,” said human resources director Gale Parker, who owned the truck that was damaged. “That half of the tree is gone. The wind just popped it off the branch.”

The storm also caused damage to the Nash County Department of Social Services building in Nashville.

A worker had to be moved to another office when rainwater leaked in through the ceiling during the storm.

“We have a couple of leaks in a portion of building,” said Melvia Batts, the director of the department.