CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Strong storms moved through the Charlotte area Saturday.
Now, cleanup is underway after storms tore down tons of trees and power lines in Charlotte. A massive tree blocked of Selwyn and Queens Road West for several hours.
“It was really a big one. It was the biggest one we had,” Nancy Rider said.
She knew storms were coming, but she wasn’t expecting the huge tree in her front yard to come down.
“I just hugged the tree yesterday and said, 'stand strong,'" she said. "I hug them every now and then when we're going to get a storm."
It knocked out power in the area and blocked off the road. She's grateful no one was hurt, and that it didn’t land on their house.
"If it went this way it would've hit my baby grand piano and it, of course, would've ruined our house,” Rider said.
Tori Irvin was driving by at the exact moment one of the branches came down.
"I heard a boom and I stopped and the tree fell and the back of my car all shattered,” she said.
Given the size of the tree, she's lucky that’s the only damage.
“It was like five minutes and then it died down, and I just happened to be on the road,” Irvin said.
The entire area was hit pretty hard, several other trees and branches came down in the neighborhood. A severe thunderstorm warning was in effect for much of the region until 9 p.m. Saturday.
There were power outages reported, including 31,727 affected in Mecklenburg County at 5:35 p.m. Saturday, according to Duke Energy. Those were estimated to be restored by 8 p.m. Saturday.
The main concern with the storms was damaging winds, according to Meteorologist Iisha Scott.
Chief Meteorologist Brad Panovich said damaging winds were moving along Highway 74 into Union County around 4:30 p.m. Saturday.
The storms were expected to be fairly quick moving, limiting the amount and time of rain. That being said, Meteorologist Chris Mulcahy said the leading edge will have the potential to produce damaging wind gusts over 60 mph.
Downed trees were reported elsewhere in the Charlotte area as well, including one pictured at Randolph Road and Providence Road.
