April 3, 2006.
Waynesville, North Carolina.
Photographer states :: Cell phone image, 5:00am this morning: Was woken up here in the North Carolina mountains to one of the most violent storms I have ever been through. This is the leading edge of the system that killed 8 people in Tennessee earlier tonight. Nickle sized hail covers my back porch. Then, as suddenly as it started, it was done. Wicked.
ASHEVILLE – A band of severe thunderstorms moved through Western North Carolina overnight, dropping hail as large as an inch in diameter, according to the National Weather Service.
A tornado watch was cancelled at 11 a.m. There were no reports of tornados in the mountains and the storm system moved east of the mountains into the piedmont by 8 a.m., meteorologist Larry Lee said.
The reports of hail started Sunday night and continued through the early morning hours, coming from Waynesville, Asheville, Marshall, Marion and other locations, he said.
There were no reports of damage from the hail, but the storm knocked out power to about 1,000 Progress Energy customers in the area, spokesman Ken Maxwell said.
A wind advisory is in effect for the region until 6 p.m. as a strong cold front moves through the Southeast. Windy conditions will exist across most of the area by afternoon. Sustained winds of 25 to 35 mph are possible, with gusts up to 50 mph at the higher elevations.
A high wind watch is in effect from this evening through late tonight, with gusts up to 60 mph possible.
Sunday’s weather was much more severe in the Midwest. Thunderstorms packing tornadoes and softball-sized hail left a path of destruction across six Midwest states, killing 15 people in west Tennessee and at least four others in Missouri and Illinois, officials said.
The Sunday storms caused a clothing store to collapse in Illinois, overturned mobile homes in several states, and pelted thousands of concertgoers with rain in downtown Indianapolis. Power was knocked out to at least 300,000 customers in Illinois, Missouri and Indiana.
Half a dozen tornadoes and softball-sized hail were reported in northeast Arkansas, where about half of the town of Marmaduke had evacuated because of gas leaks and other concerns, police said.
In Tennessee, eight people died near Newbern in Dyer County and seven in neighboring Gibson County, local emergency officials said.
