The storm system this weekend had devastating effects across the southeast. In western North Carolina, two children died early Sunday morning after high winds caused a tree to fall onto a trailer near Brevard.
Three people survived when the tree, which first responders say was about three feet wide, landed on the home. The massive tree took hours to cut, lift and stabilize.
After three hours and a “very extensive and lengthy extrication process,” firefighters recovered the bodies of two boys. They were 11 and 13 years old.
Chuck Owenby is the sheriff in Transylvania County.
“ It split the trailer right down the middle," he said, "We ended up having to get a couple of trackhoes and cranes and had a lot of help from the community just to get be able to get to them.”
Owenby said downed trees blocking roads further complicated the response.
The two boys are among dozens of other people killed by the harsh storms that ravaged the Southeast over the weekend. The storms also destroyed hundreds of homes.
Meanwhile, most of the power outages in Eastern North Carolina caused by overnight storms have been resolved.
Carteret Craven Electric Co-Op lists just one outage on its tracking map; the Greenville Utilities Commission shows 20 people still without power.
Just to the north, there are still about 7,600 outages in Perquimans County, and around 600 in Northampton County.
