Tornado-like winds flipped over planes and destroyed a hanger at a North Carolina airport Monday, but no injuries were reported, the Morganton News Herald and WJZY-TV reported.
A hanger at Hickory Regional Airport sustained heavy damage after estimated as high as 100 miles per hour roared through the eastern part of Burke County, the Morning Herald said. While several tornados were reported in nearby counties, officials said it was not clear if a tornado had actual hit the airport.
"It was breathtaking to walk up over the hill and see it," Rick Foster, who had his Piper Comanche stored in the hanger, told the News Herald. "I just knew there was some damage … I just thought it would blow a couple airplanes around and then I saw this whole hanger destroyed."
WJZY-TV said strong winds tossed the airplanes around like toys, leaving them crumpled and thrown about the airport. The television station stated that a second hanger was damaged as well.
At least one car was flipped over and at least four planes were destroyed from the winds, WJZY-TV said.
"Our risk manager has called our insurance companies and put them on notice and will be working more with them tomorrow, but they have been made aware," Sarah Prencipe, communications specialists with the city of Hickory, which owns the airport, told the News Herald. "We are working now to notify the plane owners."
The damage was not limited to Hickory. In Spartanburg County, South Carolina, heavy winds or a tornado heavily damaged a building belonging to ADO Corp., the distributor of drapery fabrics and window coverings products, WYFF-TV reported.
There were reports of two tractor-trailers being flipped over on Interstate 85 along with rapidly forming flood waters near Spartanburg Community College, WYFF-TV said.
"I've never seen water rise that fast," Tommy Holcombe told WYFF-TV. "It rose a foot within about 20 minutes, and it came over the banks and it was too late. Then the river was actually running down the entrance road down to the park. That's why we couldn't get out. It almost swept the fire chief's car away, so we've been through a scary situation here."
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