Unexpected tornado tears through Brunswick County, killing three and damaging dozens of homes

(Sara D. Davis/Getty Images)

(BRUNSWICK COUNTY, N.C.) An out-of-season tornado ripped through Brunswick County on Monday night, killing at least three and injuring 10, according to CNN.

Gov. Roy Cooper said the tornado also damaged dozens of homes.

"This is a very, very tragic event for our community and our county," Brunswick County Commissioner Randy Thompson said.

Ed Conrow, director of Brunswick County Emergency Services, said most of the injuries and deaths happened in the Ocean Ridge Plantation community and that emergency crews were fixing gas leaks and would check impacted homes Tuesday.

Brunswick County Sheriff John Ingram described the damage as "a lot of destruction."

"It's going to be a long recovery process," the sheriff said.

Kate Gentle, who lives in Brunswick County with her four children, said the surprise tornado and accompanying storm came on suddenly and unexpectedly around 11:30 p.m.

Gentle told CNN, "We were not expecting a storm tonight, so it came on very suddenly and I was really surprised to have a thunderstorm in the middle of the winter, unannounced."

"All of a sudden, it got really quiet. And all I could hear was the wind, and it scared me because the floor felt like it was vibrating. So I ran and got my kids," she said.

"I got my two little ones inside my master closet and my 16-year-old and I sat right outside the master closet and were shielded by my king-size four-poster bed right next to the closet."

According to CNN, Gentle got a severe weather alert on her phone about a minute after putting her kids in the closet.

"We've had tornado warnings before because we live about 10 minutes from the ocean, and when we get hurricanes a lot of times will get tornado warnings," she said. "But I've never had a storm just stop like that and hear the wind like that and have the floor feel like that ever before."

Gentle, her kids and her home escaped the storm unscathed.

The tornado and storm came as a part of the larger weather system bringing snow and dangerously cold temperatures to large swaths of the U.S. In Texas, millions remain without power as of Tuesday afternoon in the aftermath of a large snowstorm, according to PowerOutage.US.

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