By Jessica Coates

jessica.coates@salisburypost.com

LANDIS — Landis Finance Officer Ginger Gibson said she got her first call about a storm about 7:30 p.m. Monday.

She said town staff and maintenance crews didn’t go home until 4:30 a.m. Tuesday.

“At first, we thought it was a mini-tornado or something,” Gibson said. “And it just hit here. … We had twisted lines, poles broken, trees down. It was pretty severe.”

The storm was actually a “microburst,” which Rowan County Weather Chief Forecaster Steve Monday says is caused by a downdraft of sinking air inside a thunderstorm. See Monday’s explanation here.

In his report, Monday said winds may have reached more than 60 mph.

Gibson said about 500 homes were affected by the storm.

“But we took care of it, and no one was hurt,” Gibson said.

Landis town crews and staff worked for nearly nine hours into Tuesday morning to restore power to homes and removed fallen trees from roadways.

“Crews, staff, everyone was on call. We had the Red Cross there, the fire marshal, the chief of EMS. We just set up a command center,” Gibson said. “Everyone worked diligently.”

Gibson said almost every home that lost power had it restored by midday Tuesday.

She said that, to her knowledge, all town roads had been cleared of debris.

“Everything’s clear,” Gibson said.

For information from the town of Landis staff, call 704-857-2411.

Contact reporter Jessica Coates at 704-797-4222.