Director of Emergency Management for Henderson and Vance County told WIZS News, “We have at least four confirmed tornado touchdowns in Vance County.”
He said he thought it was all from the same tornado. “The weather service will have to confirm that from doppler imaging. They are also technically going to have to confirm that it’s tornadic damage, but I’ve seen enough to know that it is.”
Short said the weather service would be coming in tomorrow or the next day to make that determination.
There are no known deaths or injuries to report in Vance County.
Short said the four touchdowns caused significant damage. He said there were a few isolated power outages “in the Hicksboro, Williamsboro area, which is where most of the damage is.”
There are no roads closed at this time. Emergency crews cleared several downed trees really quickly, according to Short.
Based on our own observations at WIZS, these tornado touchdowns north of Henderson would have occurred right around 5:00 P.M. Wednesday. Additionally, there is an amateur video clip that has been shown several times on WTVD-TV that is supposedly of a tornado just north of Henderson, and if so, this would be in line with what Short is reporting. This stems from the first of three tornado warnings issued for Vance County on Wednesday.
The second and third tornado warnings for Vance County involved mostly areas south and east of the City of Henderson, down towards Bearpond, Kittrell and east towards Cokesbury. When asked if anything materialized from the warnings for the southern part of Vance County, Short said, “Not that I know of, but we had multiple people going in multiple directions, and I have not talked to all of them yet.”
In neighboring Granville County, near Huntsboro, which is not far from the Henderson-Oxford Airport, multiple structures were damaged. One house was completely destroyed, while adjacent houses received heavy damage. A local dairy farmer sustained heavy property damage, including two silos as well as equipment and other structure damage. WIZS News spoke directly with a person on the scene in Huntsboro. He reported the dairy farmer had not lost any of his cows and that he was observing the aftermath of the storm firsthand while speaking with us.