Editor’s note: Staff writer Chelsey Francis was in her hometown of Sanford, N.C., when the tornado hit the area. This is her reflection on the damage sustained in one of the hardest hit areas.

Living in North Carolina, you don’t really expect to have where are around 60 tornadoes touch down in one day. It’s even crazier to see one of the tornadoes form and rip through the lot right next your uncle’s house.

Saturday was a strange day in Sanford, N.C. The weather was weird all day. The air felt almost heavy. That morning I worked as the clerk for my uncle’s first auction, which was held on his property. The auction was larger than we thought it was going to be with about 115 people there, not including the help. No one could have imagined that an hour and a half after they left would be chaos. Fortunately, but he time it started raining hard we were finished with cleaning up the auction and helping people load up their purchases.

It had been raining off and on all day, but around 2:30 the bottom finally fell out. Around 3:15 p.m. on Saturday we were looking outside because of how dark it’d become. The sky made it look like it was night. It was storming when the tornado touched down and ripped apart the house beside us.

The man that lived in the house was, fortunately, not home when his tractor trailer was thrown through the house. Watching the tornado develop was insane. Luckily, the tornado steered away from our house, but pulled tin from the roof of one of our sheds.

Shortly after the tornado destruction beside our house, we heard the tornado had continued across the southern end of our county, toward the Lowe’s and Tractor Supply. Since I had been working at the auction all day, I wasn’t completely sure where my parents were, but they said there was a chance they were going to Lowe’s Saturday afternoon. Trying to find my parents to make sure they were okay was terrifying. Fortunately, they hadn’t made it to Lowe’s yet, so they were okay.

In Sanford, the southern end of our county has been severely damaged. The roof of Tractor Supply was damaged. The Big Lots, right beside Tractor Supply, caught fire as a result of the tornado. Lowe’s, which is across the street from Tractor Supply and Big Lots, was demolished. The front corner of Lowe’s is gone and the front and side of the store collapsed after the roof was ripped off.

Several of my friends and family friends are currently without a house because of the tornado.

As of right now, according to Sanford police, no one was killed at Lowe’s. There have been two reported fatalities in Sanford, one of which was the result of an automobile accident.