Residents and authorities in Burke and Rutherford counties are waiting for daylight to assess the damage from the tornado that roared across the foothills Wednesday evening.

But despite the widespread damage, officials report no fatalities from this rare January twister.

There were plenty of injuries, however, with about a dozen people hurt in Rutherford County and a yet-undetermined number in Burke County.

The Burke County Schools are opening on a two-hour delay today, due to damage in the eastern part of the county.

Damage also was reported in Caldwell County, but it is not clear if a tornado or thunderstorm winds was reponsible in that area.

The tornadoes were spawned from a cluster of thunderstorms that swept out of South Carolina late Wednesday afternoon. Large hail fell in Henderson County, but as the storm moved across eastern Rutherford County, a twister apparently developed and touched down near Ellenboro about 5:30 p.m.

It appears as if the funnel cloud moved aloft a short time later, but it was on the ground again about 6 p.m. in eastern Burke County. The area between Icard and Hildebran, in the eastern part of the county, took the brunt of the storm.

Authorities in both Burke and Rutherford counties used the word "devastating" to describe the damage from the tornadoes, which are a rarity in January.

Greg Forbes, a severe weather specialist at the Weather Channel, said there is no record of a January tornado previously in either county.

The American Red Cross opened a shelter late Wednesday evening at First Baptist Church, on U.S. 74 in Icard. At 9 p.m., the Red Cross said the parking lot at the shelter was packed with "emergency vehicles and people needing help."

Emergency management officials said 20 to 25 mobile homes were destroyed and another 15 houss seriously damaged in the eastern part of Burke County. Much of that damage was along Johnson Bridge Road and South Fork Avenue, about a mile south of Interstate 40, between the towns of Hildebran and Icard.

There were Twitter reports that a house collapsed in the 6900 block of Bradshaw Road, near Icard. There also were Twitter reports that people were trapped in blown-down buildings in the same area.

Lisa Propst, of Burke County Emergency Services said Wednesday evening that eastern and southeast parts of her county "have received devastating effects from tornado-like conditions."

"Several homes have sustained heavy damage, and power lines and utility poles are downed throughout the area," Propst said.

She urged people to stay indoors and others to stay away from the storm-damaged areas.

Dea Scoggins, a Burke County resident who lives near the storm-damaged area, wrote on Facebook late Wednesday evening that "the damage is awful."

In Rutherford County, where the tornado struck first, the damage appeared to be centered in the Ellenboro area. The National Weather Service says a trained weather spotter reported a possible tornado on the ground about 5:30 p.m. near Ellenboro. Ann Sheridan, a reporter with NewsChannel 36, the Observer's news partner, said she received reports from the Ellenboro area of houses torn apart and roofs on roads.

Twitter reports from Rutherford County described the damage as "devastation" along Piney Mountain and Dycus roads, a short distance west of Ellenboro. There were reports of people trapped in houses and injured after the apparent tornado hit about 5:35 p.m.

It was near Ellenboro where a powerful thunderstorm blew down a tree that landed on a house and killed two teen-age sisters in May.

In Caldwell County, emergency services officials said storm winds caused considerable damage to the Lake Hickory Marina, off U.S. 321 at the Catawba-Caldwell border. No injuries were reported, but a houseboat and two pontoon boats were flipped over. The pier was shattered by the winds, and the marina building was damaged, officials said.

At 7:45 p.m., Duke Energy reported about 730 customers without power in Burke County and 277 outages in Rutherford County. There also were 121 outages in Catawba County. But parts of those counties also are served by other companies, so the total number of outages could be much higher.

After the storm moved east of Burke County, the National Weather Service said radar indicated a tornado about 6 miles north of Hickory around 6 p.m. But there were no reports of a twister touching down in Catawba, Caldwell or Alexander counties, which were also along the storm path.

Large hail was reported earlier Wednesday afternoon in Henderson County. That same area of storms apparently intensified as it moved northeast into Rutherford County. The storms were part of a squall line that formed near the center of a powerful winter low pressure system crossing the Southeast.

The immediate Charlotte area was spared the worst of the storms and received several heavy rain showers around 5 p.m.