Strong storms move into the Charlotte area, knocking out power to thousands
Strong thunderstorms moved into the Charlotte area Thursday evening, bringing intense lightning and strong winds, the National Weather Service said.
About 4,000 Duke Energy customers, mostly in southwest Charlotte, were without power because of “an object coming into contact” with power lines, according to the company’s outage map.
Another 2,100 customers reported outages in northern Union County, near Indian Trail.
Power was not expected to be restored in both areas until after midnight.
At 6:55 p.m., radar was tracking a line of strong thunderstorms that extended from near Huntersville to just northwest of Monroe in Union County to 4 miles southeast of Chester, S.C. The line was moving east at 35 mph, the weather service said.
Wind gusts of 50 to 55 mph and pea-size hail were expected, the NWS said.
Duke Energy reported the greatest number of outages — about 4,000 — in an area off West Tyvola Road and South Tryon Street and extending past Shopton Road. Power there will be out until about 12:45 a.m., according to the Duke Energy outage map.
At least 15,800 Duke Energy customers were without power at 8 p.m. due to storms, including 4,000 near Raleigh.
The NWS issued another weather statement at 7:30 p.m. for Mecklenburg, Cabarrus and Union counties warning of “intense lightning, strong wind gusts and minor flooding.”
Earlier this week, the remnants of Tropical Storm Fred caused flooding in Western North Carolina. At least two people have died and 20 remain missing as of Thursday evening, according to officials with Haywood County Emergency Services.
North of Charlotte, a tornado with peak 110-mph winds damaged some homes and snapped trees 20 feet in the air Tuesday on the Iredell-Alexander county line, an NWS storm damage survey team confirmed late Wednesday afternoon.
No one was hurt as the EF-1 twister — second weakest on the Enhanced Fujita Scale for tornado intensity and damage — carved a 5.1-mile path through a rural stretch of the counties, the NWS team reported.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
This story was originally published August 19, 2021 at 7:24 PM.