Scary storms do thousands in damage in Franklin County

Severe storms moved through the northern Triangle during the late-evening Wednesday, producing severe thunderstorm warnings in Wake, Johnston, Franklin, Nash, Vance and Granville counties.

Hail varying in size, from golf ball to billiards, fell across parts of Franklin County, from Youngsville east toward Louisburg and Bunn.

In a neighborhood off North Point Drive in Louisburg, Ronald Denton Sr. said that the intense hail storm lasted about 15 minutes. He said the storm did significant damage to his home.

"It broke the window lights out. A piece of hail came in the house, and it was as big as a baseball," he said.

Faye Denton, Ronald's wife, said she's worried about the stress her family and others will have go through in order to "get things back they way they were."

Denton said he thinks the hail did $40,000 to $50,000 in damage to his home.

"You can always replace the other stuff, but your life you can't replace. Thank the Lord nobody got hurt," Ronald Denton said.

Significant damage was also reported along John Winstead Road near Bunn, according to county emergency services director Jeff Lewis.

“During the height of it, it sounded like someone was pounding on the roof and the sides of the house,” said Don Grubb, whose vehicles and home were damaged by hail. “It was very scary. We went to the center of the house and when the back windows blew out, the glass and hail stones were halfway into the living room. The couch where we were sitting and watching TV is all covered with broken glass.”

Judy Pearce said the sound of the hail was scary.

"It was like machine guns going off through my house," she said. "It scared me so bad that I got under my kitchen table and prayed to the Lord that it would stop and everybody would be safe."

On Thursday morning, another round of storms did more damage in Cumberland County when an overhang on a home on 1411 Granada Drive was blown off. A 62-year-old woman suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was taken to a local hospital for treatment, officials said.