Union County officials: preliminary EF1 tornado caused localized damage; no injuries reported

This morning Union County and National Weather Service officials said a preliminary assessment identified an EF1 tornado that tracked about 2.2 miles from the Ridge Road and Friendly Baptist Church Road area toward Lawyers Road, causing property and utility damage but no reported injuries.

The National Weather Service gave the storm a preliminary EF1 rating with maximum wind speeds of about "90 miles per hour," and estimated the tornado was on the ground for approximately 2.2 miles and about three minutes, moving at roughly "50 miles an hour," National Weather Service representative Tricia Palmer said. Palmer said the tornado likely touched down at about 8:34 a.m. and lifted near 8:37 a.m.

Union County Director of Emergency Management Andrew Ansley said emergency teams received the first 911 call about a possible funnel cloud around 8:53 a.m. and that county crews "mustered up 5 damage assessment teams" with the Union County Fire Marshal's Office and Union County Building Code to categorize damage. Ansley said "no injuries were reported during this event," and described most damage as to houses' siding or roofs, outbuildings and a framed residence under construction that suffered structural damage. He said the damage was concentrated in about a 2-mile area between Ridge Road/Friendly Baptist Church Road and Lawyers Road.

Ansley provided a utility update: "There’s one area along Lawyers Road where we saw at least 6 poles in a series that were down," and that about "1,700 people" lost power associated with that series of downed poles. He said there was other debris on wires but that in many places poles and wires remained upright and operational.

Palmer described the storm type and warning timeline. The National Weather Service issued a tornado watch for Union County at 7:49 a.m., followed by a tornado warning at 8:31 a.m. She said this tornado likely formed within a squall line — a "quasi linear convective system" — and that those tornadoes can be harder to detect and give less lead time than supercell tornadoes: "Our goal is to try to get about 13 minutes of lead time if we can, but with these types of storms, our lead time is usually typically a little bit lower." She emphasized preparedness for people in manufactured homes and urged multiple ways to receive warnings.

Jared McCraw, assistant superintendent for student support at Union County Public Schools, said district facilities staff were still assessing school properties and that bus drivers and school staff followed safety protocols during the warning. McCraw said district leaders "made a decision to continue with school today. We thought that was what was best," and that students either were delivered to schools or sheltered in nearby schools during the warning.

Union County Director of Public Communications Liz Cooper said the county's Emergency Operations Center remains open to monitor assessments and collect storm data. Cooper encouraged residents to sign up for the county’s free emergency alert system on the Union County website and said the county will "follow-up with a press release with additional information shortly."