STATESVILLE, N.C. -- The National Weather Service says it was a combination of straight line winds and a tornado that caused damage in an Iredell County neighborhood near Statesville on Wednesday afternoon.
The tornado cut a path off destruction around Hunters Ridge Lane.
The powerful storm took down a number of trees and ripped the roof right off of the home of Richard Somers who was our of town at the time.
This morning he saw his home for the first time.
"Oh it is devastating to lose your home," he said as he carried out some possessions he was able to salvage.
Some were pictures and a painting, reminders of life before yesterday.
"Its your heritage and you remember the people who actually did them for you," Somers said.
The roof in the Somers house blew off and over into the yard of his neighbor Maxine Mitchell who remembers hearing things slam into her house.
One of the walls on the second floor of her home was pierced by a long think tree limb.
Mitchell was home alone when the tornado passed by.
She sheltered on a small closet under her living room stairs and prayed.
"I was just praying to God to save me because I thought the whole house was going to fit and go," she said.
The Red Cross and Salvation Army arrived in the neighborhood and are providing help to victims of the storm.