Confirmed EF1 Tornado rips through Kinston furniture store

KINSTON, N.C. — An EF1 Tornado ripped through a Kinston shopping center Thursday after, damaging the Furniture Fair store.

Emergency crews responded to the scene at 2429 N Herritage Street around noon to see the aftermath of blown-out windows, holes in the roof, and enormous debris.

The Lenoir County leaders said they did not see this type of threat coming.

“We were given notification of a potential roof collapse and a possible tornado that touched down,” said Damien Locklear, Kinston Fire Chief.

Residents like Glenda Brown say she was in shock seeing the damages.

I’m just thanking God that nobody got hurt,” said Brown, Kinston resident. “Because from the picture that you showed me, I didn’t know it had done that kind of damage on the inside. I saw just the windows broken outside.”

The Salvation Army across the street also had punched holes in its roof and walls.

“You don’t have that time of understanding that it’s coming,” said Locklear. “You start prepping, and then you have a situation take place and mitigate it, and you go to a recovery stage.”

Locklear said the storm came up very quickly and did quite a bit of damage.

Emergency crews said no one was hurt during the incident.

“I’m just so surprised that it hit,” said Brown.

Teams are working to repair the wreckage at multiple businesses and the efforts are expected to continue into the weekend.