Tornado touches down in Atlantic Beach

Atlantic Beach, N.C. — A weak tornado touched down early Tuesday morning along the Crystal Coast.

The National Weather Service says tornado damage was found in eastern Atlantic Beach and along the Morehead City waterfront.

Early estimates are that this tornado was a weak EF 1, with winds between 85 and 90 miles per hour. It touched down around 4:45 a.m.

Several thousand customers of Duke Energy were without power after the tornado snapped a couple of utility poles in Atlantic Beach. Elsewhere a couple of storage buildings were destroyed.