WINTERVILLE, N.C. (WNCT) — Residents in Winterville, Ayden and other areas in Eastern North Carolina are coping with damage to their property after a violent storm swept through the area Tuesday evening.

“I’ve been in many hurricanes, I’ve been in places where there were tornadoes, and I’ve never seen anything or felt anything like we had yesterday,” said Christine, a Winterville homeowner.

She said the vigor of the storm caught her by surprise.

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“I saw that it was getting ready to rain and I thought ‘Oh, were getting ready to have a little storm.’ it looked like a huge white cloud on the ground, you couldn’t even see through it, next thing I know, the hail is beating against my house,” she said.

Michael Crowley also lives in Winterville, and he said the strength of the storm is something he’s never seen before.

“I believe it was a tornado that didn’t touch down, just because of the way it affected every side of my house,” Crowley said. “I think the force was just so intense and quick, the building just didn’t stand a chance, and this is a well-built shop, it’s just amazing how fast and how loud and furious it came in.”

Meanwhile, in Ayden, Fire Chief Sam Jones, said he came home from a long evening of responding to calls when he found damage to his own property. The windshield to his truck was bashed-in.

“We got called for a lot of down power lines, trees, we were assisting Garnerville, which is our neighboring department, with more calls that really they could handle at the time,” said Jones. “I guess as man said it’s not that the wind is blowing, it’s what the wind is blowing, and so something pretty heavy made contact with the hood and the windshield because there was quite a bit of water on the floorboards and on the dash as well as glass.”

WNCT Meteorologist Rob Martin said the wind almost hit 75 miles per hour in some areas, contributing to the number of trees down throughout ENC.