news-record.com

GREENSBORO (AP) _ One person was killed and three others injured in what authorities say was a tornado that moved through central North Carolina, said Patty McQuillan, spokeswoman for the state Department of Crime Control and Public Safety.

The National Weather Service said late Thursday that law enforcement officers reported a tornado 6 miles northwest of Greensboro around 11:29 p.m.

The Winston-Salem Journal quoted the North Carolina Highway Patrol as saying the storm blew three tractor-trailers off Interstate 40 near N.C. 68 and not far from Piedmont Triad International Airport.

McQuillan said eastbound lanes of I-40 were briefly closed because of downed trees.

The Emergency Operations Center reported that two businesses and one house were damaged in Guilford County, McQuillan said.

Emergency officials also reported structural collapses in Forsyth and Davie counties. It wasn't known what kind of buildings were damaged.

Central and western North Carolina bore the brunt of the severe weather. The Journal reported that more than 32,000 Duke Energy customers lost electricity because of the storm. Most of those customers were in Forsyth, Davie and Guilford counties, officials said, adding that Forsyth County had more than 20,000 outages.

Reports of house damage, fallen trees, flooding and road accidents came in from Surry, Guilford and Davie counties. The weather service issued tornado and flash-flood warnings between 8 p.m. and midnight for several counties.

In Clemmons, at least two houses off Friar Bridge Road collapsed, probably because of high winds, said Dan Ozimek, the director of the Forsyth County Emergency Medical Services, in an interview with the Journal.

Portions of north-central North Carolina were under a tornado watch from Thursday afternoon into early Friday morning.