Cleanup underway in Cumberland County after Wednesdays' severe weather

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — When storms moved through central North Carolina on Wednesday, Cumberland County saw some of the strongest winds.

Now residents are dealing with the aftermath of the severe weather that rolled through the county.

Gene Booth, director of Cumberland County Emergency Management, said most of the damage occurred between Grays Creek and Cedar Creek area.

“We had quite a bit of trees down. Power outages as well as internet outages,” Booth said. “We don’t have a direct figure or dollar amount, but we have a grasp on the damage and what was damaged.”

At the peak of the storms, Booth said more than 2,000 residents were without power.

Booth couldn’t say home many homes exactly were damaged, but did say they had at least half-a-dozen homes damaged in the Grays Creek and Cedar Creek communities from fallen trees.

Kristin Barfield, a realtor who lives in Cumberland County, took video’s of the storm as it was happening.

The wind was so strong that the door to her Chickenfoot Road home was blown open.

In the aftermath, Barfield looked at the damage. The most notable damage was a swingset flung into a trash trailer and various fallen trees.

“The tree was every bit as tall as that tree, its huge,” Barfield said, pointing to various standing trees. “That’s when I figured out it was more serious than just a bad storm.”

Barfield spent today cleaning up after the storm, but yesterday she was very concerned about her neighbors.

“It blew their pump and all the plumbing over there,” Barfield said, pointing to various homes. “They lost their flag pool, Their trampoline was over there in the woods. All the kids toys were just everywhere.’

One resident had the windows to his SUV blown out from the storm as well.

“It was strong enough that it just pushed those poles over and it just snapped them off down over here and I’m like, ‘That was pretty bad,'” Bass said.

For Bass, it reminded her of another storm that rolled through.

“It reminded me of the tornado that we had come through several years back,” Bass said. “I was really shocked to see it was this bad.”

Before 1 p.m. Wednesday, Fayetteville Regional Airport recorded a 62-mph wind gust, and a woman who lives in the Gray’s Creek neighborhood said her grandchild’s trampoline flew across her yard, crashing into an oak tree.

Booth said some areas reported by the National Weather Service had wind gusts up to 65-mph.

Despite the damage in Grays Creek, no one was seriously hurt.