MOUNT AIRY, N.C. — Sunday afternoon, WFMY News 2 crews saw the most damage in the northwest part of the Piedmont, as storms rolled through.
Heavy rain flooded the Ararat River, bringing it up past its banks. The wind brought down trees, and power lines.
In one case, one tree crushed cars on North Street near downtown Mount Airy. Carolyn Rives was enjoying the day indoors, when she heard the tree crash down.
"We had all been hanging out with friends at our house, watching the Masters all day, we were watching the Tiger Woods interview and then, right as he was speaking, one of our friends – heard a really big crack and a pop, lightning struck this tree right here. And about a fourth of the tree landed on my car – my car and my friend's car," she said, "At that point we were pretty shocked, the power went out immediately, and once we realized that the tree had not come inside the house, we were of course very happy, nobody was hurt."
Firefighters, followed by tree and power crews, closed off the road for a number of hours while they worked quickly to safely remove branches from the lines, and clear debris from the road.