SALISBURY — A summer storm rolled through Salisbury on Monday causing severe damage in some places but no one was seriously injured.
Salisbury Fire Department Battalion Chief of Emergency Management Adrian Gantt said on Tuesday that they had 38 service calls during the storm.
“The bulk of the calls were for trees down and lines down (and a) couple of transformer fires,” she said.
Damage to to electrical infrastructure resulted in power outages.
“Approximately 5,300 customers in Salisbury were impacted by outages yesterday afternoon as strong storms moved through the area,” said a Duke Energy spokesperson. “The damage was primarily caused by high winds and downed trees, which brought down power lines. Duke Energy crews responded as quickly and safely as conditions allowed, assessing damage, making repairs and restoring service to customers.”
Gantt indicated that one of the calls came out as a rescue assignment for a tree that had fallen on a house, but it actually hit the porch where an individual had been standing.
The battalion chief said that the damage was not isolated to one specific part of town, instead happening across Salisbury. Damage to one home on Cooper Street will cause the residents to be displaced at least temporarily.
The American Red Cross stepped in to assist the residents of a home there where the power box was damaged. A Red Cross spokesperson said that a tree fell on the dwelling on the side of the house where the meter box is.
“Because the meter box was destroyed, Duke (Energy) terminated utilities until they can get a contractor to come in and install a riser for new service,” the spokesperson said.
However, there were no injuries caused by that incident. The damage was confined to the siding of the home and the meter box.
