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A powerful thunderstorm dumped several inches of rain and knocked out power in the southern part of the county Wednesday afternoon.

The storm developed about 12:30 p.m. just south of Pinebluff and was concentrated in the Aberdeen and Southern Pines area. It produced torrential downpours, lightning, high winds and some hail. About six inches of rain fell in some areas during a two-hour period.

About 500 Progress Energy customers lost power, said Andy Honeycutt, a spokesman for the company in Aberdeen. He said the outages were scattered in the Southern Pines area. Most of the outages were short-lived.

A utility pole and line was downed on U.S. 15-501 near Sonic, he said.

"It was a pretty concentrated storm that exploded over the southern part of Moore County," Honeycutt said.

Some minor flooding was reported, along with some downed trees and limbs in some areas.

Several yards were flooded in the Hidden Valley subdivision behind the Town & Country Shopping Center, off U.S. 1 in Aberdeen, said Kathy Cronauer, who lives on Vincent Way. She said several residents' front yards were washed out during another heavy rainfall last week.

"I can't leave my house right now," she said.

At the Elk's Lodge & Golf Club in Southern Pines, past CEO and President Jack Grimm was furious.

Mud and silt from a development off Morganton Road, which backs up to Elk's, had littered the 1st and 17th hole fairways.

Grimm estimated that 500,000 gallons of muddy water had damaged the course.

"I don't know what'll happen if this tropical storm comes through," he said. The ground's already saturated.

County Public Safety Director Scot Brooks, who spent most of the day on preparations for Tropical Storm Ernesto, said the rest of the county was not affected. In fact, it did not even rain. He said the storm developed very quickly.

"It was just that U.S. 1 corridor between Pinebluff and Southern Pines," he said. "It just seems that area keeps getting picked on lately."

Ryan C. Tuck contributed to this report.

Check Friday's Pilot and ThePilot.com for the full story.

Track National Weather Service storm alerts for Moore County as Tropical Storm Ernesto approaches.