Trees fall across central NC in strong thunderstorms

Winds toppled 15 to 20 trees on the Dorothea Dix campus in Raleigh, including a massive oak tree that damaged part of the Haywood Building, which houses the state Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Services. Workers got out of the building safely, but the tree also damaged some cars parked nearby.

Matthew Eslabon, a student at North Carolina State University, found several limbs on his car off Woodburn Road and Hillsborough Street in Raleigh. He said it's the second time a tree has fallen on the car in the last year.

"What's done is done," Eslabon said. "I guess we just got to figure out the tree situation at this point."

"I honestly thought I was in the middle of the storm because I couldn’t see. [It was] blowing the truck everywhere," Brandon Ray said.

Many trees knocked down power lines as they fell, and one even took out a transformer.

Duke Energy said about 20,000 homes and businesses were without power in Wake County on Monday evening, but the outages were down to about 1,000 late Monday.

Power lines fell all over in Johnston County, and N.C. Highway 42 was shut down for over an hour because of a tree on live power lines.

"We didn’t know if we were having a tornado or what we were having because it was real, real loud," Johnson said.

In Zebulon, Sylvia Jones walked out in her yard to see her "she shack" on fire after lightning struck it.

"[There was} rapid succession of lightning. It was just so sharp," Jones said. "It was evident that it was a strike."

State highway crews had to close Interstate 95 in both directions near mile marker 67 in Cumberland County for about half an hour Monday afternoon so Duke crews could remove downed power lines from the highway. I-95 was reopened shortly after 5 p.m.

WRAL meteorologist Mike Maze said some of the damage was caused by microbursts, as strong winds produced by storms slammed into the ground and then into opposite directions.

The storms did provide some relief from oppressive heat earlier in the day, with temperatures in the 90s and dew points in the 70s producing triple-digit heat indexes.

"We'll have a heat index over 100 degrees for the next several days, and there will be little relief," WRAL meteorologist Elizabeth Gardner said.

Highs will be in the low 90s again through Thursday, but the chance of storms drops off after Tuesday. A front brings cooler temperatures and an increased chance of rain on Friday.

After the storms, central North Carolina will experience a noticeable cool down, with temperatures dropping into the 80s for the weekend.