Holiday labor includes storm clean-up

For those whose properties were damaged, Labor Day proved true to the name. Instead of relaxing, many were drying out, removed downed trees, and a few were investigating the insurance implications of lightning-sparked fires.

Posted 7:17 p.m. Sep 1, 2013 — Updated 8:21 p.m. Sep 2, 2013

RALEIGH, N.C. — Thunderstorms that rocked parts of central North Carolina on Sunday knocked out power to thousands and left high water where flash floods washed into low-lying areas.

"I'd rather be at the beach, lake, swimming, but here we are swimming in this shop," said Keith Kettells, owner of the Mobile Magik Body Shop in Raleigh.

Kittells has owned the business for less than a year and does not have insurance.

"Well, the clean-up is going to take some work. That's for sure. It is never a good time to flood, but we will keep going on like we always do, and we will make the best of it," Kittells said.

A tree fell on a house on White Oak Drive in Cary.
In Raleigh, a downed tree blocked Paddock Drive.
Firefighters suspect lightning started a fire at 2505 Hinton Street in Raleigh. A neighbor said he heard a loud boom before flames began shooting from the roof.
On New Bern Avenue, high winds knocked down a power line, leaving residents in the dark and the thoroughfare without traffic signals for hours.
In Johnston County, lightning struck a shed at 139 Kendall Drive in Clayton, and it burned to the ground.
Fires were also reported in Nashville on Pondview Court, in Sims on Shiloh Church Road, and in Garner on Tavernier Knoll Lane.
The parking lot was flooded at a U-Haul rental location on Raleigh's Capital Boulevard. T.G. Rich reported that when Marsh Creek crested some of the trucks were floating in the water.
About a dozen cars were flooded in the lower parking deck at Crabtree Valley Mall.

Severe thunderstorm warnings blanketed the Triangle for hours during the early evening Sunday. The National Weather Service issued flash flood warnings for parts of Wake, Durham, Orange and Alamance counties where rain fell at a rate of about 4.5 inches per hour.

The storms produced winds of up to 58 mph and quarter-sized hail.

Louisburg saw the greatest accumulation of rain. The community measured 2.7 inches of rainfall Sunday night. In Raleigh, just over an inch fell, and in Chapel Hill the total was 1.5 inches.

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