Storm Causes Major Damage, Power Outage in Goldsboro

A Days Inn on Wayne Memorial Drive lost most of its roof in the storm, and a Holiday Inn Express on Highway 70 near Spence Road suffered "cosmetic" damage, according to Wayne County Sheriff’s officials.

Building inspectors will check the hotel's structure and see if it is sound enough to let people back in to collect their belongings on Saturday morning.

Four people staying at the Days Inn suffered minor injuries, officials said.

Sheriff’s officials said they were “very busy” responding to damage caused by the storm Friday night. Trees and power lines were down in many areas, but most of the damage was in the city of Goldsboro, officials said.

Trees fell onto several homes, and the Wal-Mart shopping center in Goldsboro suffered some damage, as well.

Progress Energy reported 300 customers were still without power in Wayne County as of 10:15 p.m. Saturday. Company officials said power should be restored to most of the remaining customers by midnight.

At the height of the outage around 7 p.m., the storm knocked out power to 8,600 customers, mostly in Goldsboro.

A house also caught fire on South Beston Road in eastern Wayne County. Lightning struck the area, but officials could not confirm that was the cause of the fire.