Police kept busy overnight due to severe storms rolling through the area | Weather

CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV)- Emergency crews were kept busy overnight checking on tripped alarms thanks to heavy storms in the area.

When many people think of severe storms, they imagine the night sky being lit up like it was on fire, blinding rain or downed trees.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police see burglar alarms.

Another round of heavy weather came rolling through the area around 12:30am on Wednesday, bringing with it air-to-ground lightning strikes every few seconds, and rainfall coming down in buckets.

But with all of that, the headache didn't turn out to be massive damage, it was the power surges that came along with the storm system.

Officers said they responded to calls at several homes and businesses overnight.  Most checked out to be nothing.

When the fire department rolled up to a blaring alarm at the 7/11 convenience store off of Reames Road in north Charlotte however, they spotted smoke inside.

The cracked the doors and went inside to investigate according to officers on the scene.  There was no fire, but plenty of smoke.

Officials described it as "toxic".

The feeling was a power surge caused a short, flooding the store with smoke, but there was no sign of a fire.

The business was aired out, and workers from Duke Energy were called in to repair the damage.

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