Overnight storms topple trees, cause power outages across central NC

While not everyone experienced damage from overnight thunderstorms, areas east of Wake County were feeling the biggest impacts Friday morning.

Some of the worst damage was east of the Triangle near Rocky Mount and Wilson, where Wilson Energy reported over 14,000 customers were without power at 5 a.m. -- over one-third of their customers.

Randy Senzig, an environmental science teacher at Fuquay High School, has had the property in southern Wake County in his family since the late 1800s. He used his large oak tree in his front yard to teach students about nature.

"We would meet out here under the big oak trees," he said. "We were caretakers of that tree."

But Friday night's storm was no match for one of the biggest trees in southern Wake County.

"I am in mourning," Senzig said. "It was a friend."

Wilson County Schools will be closed Friday because storms caused power outages at schools across the district, officials said. Statewide, around 24,000 customers were without power in North Carolina.

Around 6,000 customers were without power in Wake County, most south of Raleigh and in the Garner area.

The owner of a home off Lake Wheeler Road told WRAL News a tree crashed through the window into his young son's bedroom, but the boy was not there when it happened.

A 60-foot tree also fell in Garner's Grissom Farms neighborhood, just missing a family's vehicles, according to the owner, and Sky 5 flew over a home on Stonyford Court in Raleigh's Manor Ridge Subdivision, where a tree fell across the roof of a large home. In the video, you can see debris and lawn chairs in the family's pool.

Viewers shared photos of large hail in Apex videos a video of an intense lightning strike over WakeMed in Raleigh.

There were several road closures in southern Wake County early Friday morning: