Kim Siems’ Northeast Raleigh Home Was Spared by the Oct. 11 Tornadoes, So She Pulled On Gloves and Helped Neighbors Clear Fallen Trees and Debris

Some houses in northeast Raleigh came out of Sunday, Oct. 11, with trees on their roofs, siding torn away and fences damaged. Kim Siems’ house came out of it untouched. So Siems went to work on her neighbors’ yards instead, WRAL News reported, joining neighbors in the Neuse Crossing and Massey Preserve neighborhoods to clear fallen trees and storm debris.

Gloves on in Neuse Crossing and Massey Preserve

Siems told WRAL she does not fix roofs and does not fix cars, but she has hands and gloves and can help clean up. Cleanup was still underway on Monday, Oct. 12, when debris piles lined some streets in northeast Raleigh every 30 to 40 feet.

Residents of both neighborhoods pitched in, according to WRAL. A video a viewer recorded on Massey Ridge Court during the storm showed trash cans, outdoor furniture and bicycles flying through the air. No injuries were reported.

The storms that tore through the Triangle that Sunday afternoon were spawned by Isaias, which had made landfall in Florida on Friday night. At least six tornadoes touched down in the region, with winds of 65 to 110 mph, uprooting trees, ripping siding and roofs off homes and overturning cars, the station reported. This site covered the deadly falling trees in Alabama and the Florida Panhandle when Isaias came ashore near Destin.

A 107 mph tornado’s path into Neuse Crossing

Weather Service surveyors spent Monday mapping the damage. The National Weather Service office in Raleigh rated one of the twisters, which it named the Perry Creek tornado, an EF1 with estimated peak winds of 107 mph, according to its preliminary damage survey statement.

That tornado touched down at about 1:12 p.m. in the Stone Ridge neighborhood, just south of Interstate 540, and moved north into Neuse Crossing, the statement says. Its damage path was broken up rather than continuous. It covered 2.51 miles, reached a maximum width of 150 yards and lifted near Mitchell Mill Road at about 1:17 p.m., ending about 4 miles southwest of Rolesville. The survey listed no injuries and no deaths, and the Weather Service noted the findings could change before they are published in its Storm Data records.

The storm reports logged that afternoon show how much of the damage came from trees. Of 18 reports from Wake County in the Weather Service’s local storm report archive, most describe a tree down on a road, a power line, a gate or a house. One near New Hope noted a tree down on a house on Amber Bluffs Crescent with possible tornado damage. Another, southwest of Rolesville, listed trees down on Tunas Street and Singleleaf Lane.

Burton White’s roof and Walter O’Neal’s gazebo

Not every family on those streets was as lucky as Siems. Burton White told WRAL a tree fell on his roof and partly damaged it while he and his wife were at church. Neighbors and the fire department helped clear the area around his home.

Walter O’Neal said his fence, gazebo and siding were damaged. He told the station that repairs on the hardest-hit properties were expected to take days.

Elsewhere in Raleigh, ABC11 reported damage on Blue Blossom Drive and near Groveshire Drive. On Toyon Road, homeowner Erik Grubbs said his roof partly collapsed and a window blew out. In Rolesville, trees fell after a reported tornado touchdown, and trees also came down along Highway 56 in Louisburg, the station reported.

The damage stretched well beyond Wake County. In Fayetteville, Fire Chief Kevin Dove said five buildings on Skibo Road had structural damage, and a Walmart was evacuated after rooftop HVAC units were knocked loose, according to ABC11. Chatham County dispatchers confirmed a tornado touched down about nine miles east of Pittsboro, and several houses were damaged along Highway 401 and Josey Williams Road in Harnett County. In Johnston County, trees fell onto railroad tracks near US 70 and NC 42 East and halted train traffic until Sunday evening.

This site has also told the story of a retired neighbor who quietly cleared a windstorm’s mess.

Raleigh’s free storm debris pickup

The city of Raleigh is collecting storm debris from the affected areas at no charge, WRAL reported. Residents are asked to separate yard waste, such as limbs and branches, from man-made debris like siding and fencing before setting it out.

Outside of storm cleanup, the city’s normal yard waste rules are stricter. Limbs must be tied into bundles no longer than 5 feet, no wider than 18 inches and no heavier than 50 pounds, with no more than five bundles per collection. Logs and limbs over 6 inches in diameter or longer than 5 feet are not picked up, and neither are stumps. Yard waste can go out no earlier than noon the day before collection, and setting it out too early or leaving it too long can bring a $50 citation.

Residents can also take yard waste to the city’s Yard Waste Recycling Center at 900 N. New Hope Road for a fee. The center is open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays and 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays. The city’s Solid Waste Services department handles storm-related questions at 919-996-3245.

For Siems, the work was simpler than any of those rules. Her own home needed nothing, so she pulled on gloves and helped the neighbors whose trees had come down.

Get stories like this by email. Sign up for The Parent Diaries Letter.

This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: James Willamor, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons