HIGH POINT, N.C. — The National Weather Service confirmed two tornadoes touched down in the Triad Thursday. A strong one packing winds of up to 100 miles-per-hour hit Burlington after a weaker one left its mark in High Point.
The NWS said an EF-0 tornado with estimated 85 mile-per-hour winds stayed on the ground for a mile in the southwest part of the city.
"My wife was the last one to leave this building. She left and just missed the tornado one minute," Lars Ljungholm of the Salvation Army said.
Ljungholm was worried for his wife who hadn't come home yet when the tornado hit around 5 p.m. Thursday.
Clean-up efforts were underway as utility crews went to neighborhoods to restore power and phone lines. Roads that had been cut off by fallen trees have now reopened with debris littered along the roadside.
Several buildings also sustained extensive damage from the strong winds.
"Some smaller outbuildings that were blown over, like shed type buildings and fencing and typically that right there is conducive of a weak tornado-like an EF-0," Nick Petro with the National Weather Service said.
Ljungholm estimated the property damage to the Salvation Army was around $200,000.
"It's the roof, it's also the soccer field, we had five of our light poles knocked over and I know each one of those is like $25,000," he said.
The meteorologists with the NWS said they're still surveying damage across four affected counties in the area and additional investigations would continue tomorrow.