Rowles, a teacher at West Stanly, was filming the scene the tornadoes left behind in Albemarle, Locust and the surrounding areas this morning.

The first tornado was spotted around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday and the second hit close to 8 p.m.

“We were just discussing weather. Cold fronts, warm fronts, so this falls right into the curriculum,” Rowles said this morning while shooting at the McDonald’s on N.C. 24-27.

Rowles who lives onCanton Road, said the tornado touched down in the area and severely damaged Canton Baptist Church. One of the church buses was upside down behind the church.

Mel Gardner was attending prayer meeting at Canton Baptist Church when the storm struck. “It sounded like two Mack Trucks coming through the church,” he said. “There was a whole lot of praying going on.” He said the congregation moved to the church hallway for safety as the tornado passed.

The storm appears to have skipped over a large area and hit down again at the intersection of N.C. 740 and N.C. 24-27. A car was upside down on another vehicle on the side of the N.C. 24-27. The roof of McDonald’s had been damaged, the drive-through sign and primary sign also suffered from the winds.

Across the intersection, at N.C. 740 the Blue Bay Restaurant and BP Gas Station, suffered the most damage in the town.

Blue Bay’s parking lot was littered with shreds of wet insulation and pieces of glass. Several vehicles had been left there overnight after windows were blown out and debris slammed into the sides.

Gas pumps were knocked over, and yellow tape blocked off the area of the station. Green and yellow sheet metal lay in the adjacent parking lot of the mall.

The recently remodeled Wendy’s was one of the luckier business on the strip that was hit.

“We didn’t suffer much damage,” said Victor Kozma, director of maintenance at the Albemarle franchise. “Our prime sign was knocked down, that’s about it,” he said as he picked up pieces of cardboard and broken plastic.

Sometime after midnight, many business owners were driving around their stores hoping for the best — minimal damage.

The owner of the Golden Wok Buffet, was up on a ladder in the rain repairing his sign.

The storm seemed to skip over a major block of businesses and hit a residential area about a quarter mile down the road.

At the intersection of NorthSecond and North First streets, crews worked past 1 a.m. to repair a pole utility broken in half and dangling over the busy street.

Most of the town’s power is being restored this morning but last night the roads divided who would have light and who would not.

Driving down U.S. 24-27 one side of business was dark and the other glowed like the aurora borealis.

This morning, tree cutting crews were removing a large oak tree that fell on North Second barely missing the houses nearby.

Ben Jolly, director of business and community relations at Stanly Memorial Hospital said 10 patients suffering cuts, abrasions and bruises from flying debris were treated and released by the hospital between about 7 and 9 p.m. Some of the people were brought in by ambulance, others “presented themselves,” he said.

Jolly said the hospital never lost power or had to go to generator power.

Local officials could not be reached because they were assisting those who were hit by the storms.

Reports indicate at least 15 houses were damaged in the storms.

Locust also had severe damage. A mobile home was thrown 60 feet, and trees across the small town were uprooted. A propane cylinder tipped over, spilling close to 500 pounds of propane in the town. Hazardous materials teams worked for hours to clean up the mess.

County manager John Whitehurst said nearly every window in the Albemarle Plaza shopping center was shattered from the strong winds.

Stanly County Schools were delayed two hours this morning, and most of Albemarle’s businesses near the intersection of N.C. 24-27 and N.C. 740 are closed.

Harry Gerapetritis, head meteorologist at the Greenville-Spartanburg office of the National Weather Service, said one tornado was apparently initially spotted in Cabarrus County and the weather service issued a warning for the eastern half of that county. He said the actual storm developed about five or 10 miles south of Concord and moved northeast. Gerapetritis said he was not aware of any damage within Cabarrus County.