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Updated: Damage Assessment Begins After Deadly Sunday Tornado

A tornado touched down in Greensboro Sunday evening, resulting in severe damage to some buildings, including schools. At least one person died as a result of the storm. (Courtesy: GSO Fire Dept./Twitter)

At least one person died and thousands are still without power after a tornado ripped through Greensboro Sunday evening.

The National Weather Service determined the storm to be a "high-end EF-2," with maximum possible wind speeds of 135 miles per hour. Once it touched down, it cut a path about 300 meters wide.

Superintendent Sharon Contreras said Hampton, Peeler and Erwin elementary schools sustained the most damage, and there are other schools that need to be assessed. All Guilford County schools are closed Monday.

WFDD's David Ford spoke with Assistant Greensboro Fire Chief Dwayne Church early Monday morning to get the latest on damage, safety tips and what comes next.

Interview Highlights

On where the worst of Sunday's storm hit:

Well yesterday, right [around] 5:00 p.m., we had a confirmed tornado touch down on the east side and northeast side of Greensboro. And from what we can tell from the damage it looks like it started just east of [U.S. 29 and I-85], it touched down there, and most of the damage was from Willow Road on the south end all the way up to the Old Town Road right there at White Street, close to Phillips Avenue.

On what residents need to do now to stay safe:

One thing right now is we still have a lot of power outages...mostly around the eastern/northeastern part of the city. What we would tell people is "if you see any power lines, stay away and treat all power lines that are down on the ground as if they are alive and they're active." That would be the biggest concern for us right now is people trying to come in and get in the debris. Some of these houses are unstable and we don't want anyone trying to get in and sift through debris without us doing it first and checking on the stability of the structures.

On what happens next:

Our first priority [Sunday] was really to check on the residents, and we stayed up until about 3:00 a.m. last night, units out, going house to house, and checking on the safety of our residents. We weren't really able to do much of a damage assessment because of the light. Now that it's daylight, today our priority will be doing those damage assessments and looking for any dangers. We'll have some building inspectors going along with us, and we'll be condemning structures as we go along, and just trying to keep the residents safe. If a structure needs to be condemned we'll want to keep those residents out of those structures just to protect them.

(Ed.: This transcription has been lightly edited for clarity. The story has also been updated with a storm classification from the National Weather Service in Raleigh.)

Before his arrival in the Triad, David had already established himself as a fixture in the Austin, Texas arts scene as a radio host for Classical 89.5 KMFA. During his tenure there, he produced and hosted hundreds of programs including Mind Your Music, The Basics and T.G.I.F. Thank Goodness, It's Familiar, which each won international awards in the Fine Arts Radio Competition. As a radio journalist with 88.5 WFDD, his features have been recognized by the Associated Press, Public Radio News Directors Inc., Catholic Academy of Communication Professionals, and Radio Television Digital News Association of the Carolinas. David has written and produced national stories for NPR, KUSC and CPRN in Los Angeles and conducted interviews for Minnesota Public Radio's Weekend America.
Sean Bueter joined WFDD in August 2015 as a reporter covering issues across the Piedmont Triad and beyond.Previously, Sean was a reporter, host and news director at WBOI in Fort Wayne, Ind., just a few hours from where he grew up. He also sorted Steve Inskeep's mail as an intern at NPR in Washington, D.C.Sean has experience on a variety of beats, including race, wealth and poverty, economic development, and more. His work has appeared on NPR's Morning Edition and All Things Considered, and APM's Marketplace.In his spare time, Sean plays tennis (reasonably well), golf (reasonably poorly), and scours local haunts for pinball machines to conquer.

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