Quick-passing storms cause damage in Lincoln, Gaston counties

GASTON/LINCOLN COUNTIES, N.C. — Pressley Drive is still closed after a storm ripped through Gaston and Lincoln counties Wednesday night.

Residents are still without electricity because of the storm that rushed through in a couple of minutes and knocked down three trees in one yard alone.

Brian Wray, who lives in the neighborhood, said as wild as the area looks now, it was much worse in the moment.

[FORECAST: Brief break from severe weather but more storms on the way]

"I don't know how to describe the scene that I saw,” Wray said. “It was like something out of 'The Wizard of Oz.'"

Wray said the stood on the porch watching trees snap and twist when his wife and children pulled him back inside.

[RELATED: Several roads closed after 160 trees fall across Lincoln, Gaston counties]

A tree crushed the porch and his car in the driveway.

"Had your family not reached out and pulled you back in, what do you think would have happened to you?” reporter Ken Lemon asked.

"I wouldn’t be here with you right now,” Wray said.

Sydney Cox was on the phone talking to a friend when a tree fell on her grandmother's house near Dallas.

"I'm incredibly lucky. It could have been so much worse,” Cox said. "It was a blessing that I had my phone."

The tree pinned Cox on the couch on her back with the roof above her.

Cox managed to call 911.

It took an hour and 20 minutes for firefighters to get to her and cut her free.

Cox walked away with only scratches.

"I was thinking, ‘God has a greater plan for me. I need to go on and do something better,’” she said.

Channel 9 followed Tommy Almond, Gaston County's emergency management director, as he surveyed the damage.

Most of the damage was between Dallas and Lincolnton.

"It appears when it got in this area, it just intensified a little bit more,” Almond said.

Huge trees were uprooted.

Some were snapped by straight-line winds that Almond said reached 55 mph.

As of late Thursday afternoon, several roads were still blocked.

"We are in that afternoon thunderboomer season when storms can pop up pretty quick,” Almond said.

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