Scotland Neck Residents Still Cleaning Up After Weekend Storm

Carolyn Battle was at work Saturday afternoon when the storm blew through Scotland Neck. She had no idea what was waiting for her.

"I was scared because when I first came home, I went and looked all through my house and the bathroom was leaking," she said. "I was ready to leave because I was scared. I thought maybe it was going to come back again.

Her home is one of 25 buildings in the Halifax County town damaged by heavy winds. Residents say the storm did not last very long, but it was long enough to uproot some of the largest trees in town.

Luckily, no one was hurt, but Walter Arrington came close to injury. He said he was sitting in the corner room of his house when a giant oak tree fell around him.

"The tree was right here at the steps," he said. "The other one was on the other side of the house, but nothing fell on top of the house for us to get hurt. That's God's work."

Some said the weekend storm will go down in town history.

"[It was] like a big cloud. A dark cloud came through and dropped and it went on back up. It was like Hurricane Hazel back in 1954," resident Leslie Day said.

The National Weather Service is in town to confirm whether a tornado did, in fact, touch down in the town. There is not much money in the town budget to handle the cleanup, so residents are hoping that charities will help.