Dozens of western North Carolina homes were damaged, including 16 destroyed, in a tornado and storms that also injured 15 persons, authorities said Thursday.
In Rutherford County, a tornado Wednesday left 10 persons injured and a dozen homes damaged, officials said.
The extent of injuries were not immediately known, authorities said.
The National Weather Service on Thursday confirmed that Wednesday night's storm in Rutherford County was a tornado classified on the Enhanced Fujita scale as an EF-2, with estimated maximum wind speed of 115 mph.
Tornadoes are rare enough on the backside of the lower Appalachians like that, but we do get them out that way. I've been through Rutherford County plenty of times, and it's just staggering to think about what it's like to get hit by a tornado in the middle of what passes for winter in western NC: drizzle, fog, and 45 degrees outside for basically the entirety of New Year's Day to Valentine's Day, with the occasional power line-eating ice storm the one week it decides to be 25 instead.
But tornadoes? In January? Doesn't happen. Or used to not happen, anyway. Parents are okay, but they know people who took damage from the storms.
It's getting weird out there. And hey, you never know.
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