SALISBURY — As nearly an inch and a half of rain came down in buckets over the last two days, some local residents saw trouble in their own backyards.
Beth Dixon, a local judge and Salisbury resident, said she thought a tree had crushed her garage when she heard ripping metal and a thud Monday morning.
“I thought the tree had fallen and crushed the cars when I heard the noise,” Dixon said.
But the fallen white oak, which grew through the center of a tree house her kids had once used, instead fell against the home itself.
Fortunately, the Dixons said, the tree didn’t appear to significantly damage the home.
“It looks like actually the tree house broke the fall enough that it didn’t do more damage to the house,” Dixon said. “We’re just lucky that the house didn’t look like the tree house.”
The Dixons said the saturated ground and increased weight of the tree likely led to the collapse.
Roy Dixon, Beth’s son, said the tree fell around 7 a.m.
“To me, it sounded like someone was sliding a metal container across the floor,” he said.
The oak narrowly dodged a series of windows on the rear of the home and the Dixons said an initial survey of the roof didn’t reveal any serious damage.
On the other side of town, Kelly Poole, who lives at a home on Stokes Ferry Road, said a new bridge built by the N.C. Department of Transportation is helping to keep Third Creek from spilling over there — but her farm is still seeing tremendous flooding.
The creek slices through Poole’s pasture, which runs along the bridge in the 5800 block of Stokes Ferry Road. On Monday morning, the saturated ground had pools of water creeping up the hill toward her home.
Poole said transportation officials wanted to protect the front of the house, which had battled standing water before. They eventually installed a drainage runoff ditch to divert the water.
Still, she said, the inches of water where her cows typically stand came as a surprise.
“They actually did a wonderful job keeping the front of my house from flooding, but I don’t think they expected that to happen,” Poole said with a laugh.
Despite the downpours, Frank Thomason, the county’s emergency services director, said no major issues were reported.
“We’ve had a couple of tree-down reports but with no damage,” Thomason said.
Larry Gabrick, of the National Weather Service, said the Salisbury area saw around 1.47 inches over a 48-hour period with 1.31 inches of that coming in the final 24 hours.
Gabrick said some parts of Mecklenburg and Cabarrus counties saw more than 2 inches of rain.

Contact reporter Nathan Hardin at 704-797-4246.