Brief tornado causes damage at Holden Beach

HOLDEN BEACH, NC (WWAY) — The clean-up is underway after the National Weather Service in Wilmington says a tornado briefly touched down in Holden Beach early yesterday morning.

The Weather Service says the brief EF0 tornado, with winds at about 65 mph, touched down for about a minute at 4:39 a.m. near Lafayette Street north of Holden Beach Road SW.

The tornado uprooted a tree and knocked down large limbs before crossing McLamb Ave. SW. Along McLamb, there were trees snapped on to a home on the east side of the road, according to a news release. On the west side of the street, a screen-in porch was lifted from the foundation, and two pump houses were thrown into a home.

A tree landed on Marjorie O’Neal’s house.

“It was just here, then gone, but it sounded, I don’t know how it sounded. It was loud. Very, very loud,” O’Neal said.

The tornado continued across Lakeside Dr. SW, where it knocked down a couple of trees before lifting over a pond on the north side of the road, the NWS said.