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GREENSBORO — Despite the chaos of Thursday night, rescue workers found a bright side Friday morning.

A series of tornadoes lifted, twisted and scattered everything they encountered in the Piedmont late Thursday, leaving at least one person dead and several injured and causing millions of dollars in damage to property along the Sandy Ridge Road-Interstate 40 area.

Yet emergency personnel — and many who endured the storm — expressed thanks in the aftermath that it wasn't worse.

"We really kind of dodged a bullet," Greensboro Assistant Fire Chief David Douglas said at a news conference Friday. "It came in late in the evening when most of you had already gone home; our traffic volume was low. Our occupancy in the buildings were low. … It could have been much worse than it was."

Even so, in Guilford County alone, the storm damaged about 25 businesses and 30 homes.

"Our community is going to take an economic hit for a little while," Douglas said.

Authorities quarantined a commercial and industrial area around U.S. 421, Interstate 40, N.C. 68 and Sandy Ridge Road. Some property owners were allowed to return to the area about 11 a.m. to assess damage to their property; others might not get in until today after power is restored.

West Market Street from Landmark Drive to N.C. 68 and Little Santee Road will also remain closed to traffic.

One after another, the storms came throughout the night, following a track that took them through portions of Davie, Forsyth and Guilford counties.

Evidence of the storms' rampage:

l A tornado touched down just after 11:30 p.m. near Sandy Ridge Road and Interstate 40 in Greensboro, leaving one man dead.

Authorities identified the victim as Donald Ray Needham, 51, of Jackson Springs. They believe Needham was asleep in his truck at 8717 W. Market St. when the storm flipped it over.

Authorities said three others suffered injuries that were not life-threatening during the storm.

"It's a tragedy that we had any life lost," said Alan Perdue, Guilford's emergency services director, "but considering the magnitude of the storm ... we were very fortunate."

The National Weather Service said the twister generated winds estimated at 130 mph and raked a path three miles long and as much as a quarter-mile wide.

l The storm severely damaged I.H. Caffey Distributing Co. at 8749 W. Market St. It ripped the roof off a portion of a building and collapsed one wall, sending one person to the hospital.

Winds turned over cars in the company parking lot.

l High winds damaged at least seven planes at Piedmont Triad International Airport and knocked down trees that temporarily blocked access to the terminal.

The wind blew two FedEx cargo planes off the tarmac into a construction site. The other planes were passenger jets that sustained only minor damage and were not occupied at the time.

l The storm clobbered the Piedmont Triad Farmers Market at 2914 Sandy Ridge Road. It knocked down the wall of one building, uprooted trees along the edge of the property, scattered produce and tossed around freezers as if they were toys.

l More gusts blew at least three tractor-trailers off

I-40. Two of the storm's three nonfatal injuries came from vehicles overturning on the interstate during the storm.

The storm also damaged homes, cars and churches.

It dropped a tree on Ruth Holt's home at 3210 Sandy Ridge Road. Her son, Garland, rode out the storm in his mobile home behind the house.

"The trailer got to rocking," Garland Holt said. "I'll never forget that sound as long as I live."

On Sandy Ridge Road, Zion Hill United Methodist Church sustained minor damage to its roof, steeple and picnic shelter. Two of the five stained-glass windows on the south wall were broken.

Despite the damage, some businesses found ways to keep going. Rooney Castellon's expedited shipping company, Accurate Shipping Resources, got hit hard enough that he couldn't return to his building until 11 p.m.

Using a cell phone, he rented trucks to replace the ones he couldn't get to at his office and gave on-the-fly estimates for shipping charges he couldn't calculate without his computer. But he made every delivery that was scheduled.

Elsewhere, twisters also touched down in Forsyth and Davie counties. One near Clemmons generated winds estimated at 140 mph.

All spun off from a powerful storm system that swept across North Carolina and into Virginia late Thursday and into Friday.

In addition to strong winds, the storms brought heavy rains and hail to many areas. Residents throughout the region lost power as trees fell onto power lines or poles snapped because of the force of the wind.

At the height of the storm, a Duke Energy spokesman said, 10,400 customers had no electricity in Forsyth, Davie and Guilford counties. By 5 p.m., 6,000 people in Davie were still without power. Only 700 Guilford and 985 Forsyth customers remained in the dark.

Staff writers J. Brian Ewing, Jason Hardin, Joe Rodriguez, John Newsom, and Mike Fuchs contributed to this story.

Contact Donald W. Patterson at 373-7027 or don.patterson@news-record,com

Contact Sonja Elmquist at 373-7090 or sonja.elmquist @news-record.com