Elmore County officials are spending Sunday morning assessing damage across the county following a straight line wind event that passed through in the early morning hours.
Elmore County EMA director said his office was up most of the night and currently out assessing damage.
“We’ve got reports of trees and power lines pretty much from one end of the county to the other and north and south, the whole county,” Barnett said. “It looks like we did have a significant wind event come through, straight line winds like the National Weather Service was talking about. There were some pretty strong gusts.”
Currently Double Bridge Ferry Road in Eclectic is closed due to trees and powerlines in the road. Barnett said there is a short stretch with most of the downed trees.
“Initial report was between 10 to 30 trees in that short area,” Barnett said. “The county currently has crews with heavy equipment trying to remove them but the trees are also involved in power lines. They have to be real careful.”
This area is on the west edge of a line the NWS indicated as a tornado about 3 a.m. Sunday traveling along Highway 50 towards Walnut Hill and Camp Hill in Tallapoosa County.
As of 6:30 a.m. Double Bridge Ferry Road was the only road Barnett knew of that was still closed in the county.
Barnett said more than 60 calls for service came into Elmore County 911 overnight and into the morning related to the storm.Â
“We have at least 43 locations that had reports of trees down in the roadways,” Barnett said. “Over 20 reports of powerlines down. In some cases the power lines are involved in the trees down. The utility companies have been notified.”
Barnett cautions everyone to stay away from downed power lines and to report them.
“We have been reporting them to the utility companies as we are getting them,” Barnett said. “They are doing the best they can to get units out there.”
According to Alabama Central Electric Cooperative, more than 1,500 customers in Elmore County are without power as of 7 a.m.
According to Alabama Power, more than 6,500 customers in Elmore County are without power as of 7 a.m.
Barnett said no injuries have been reported because of the storm but six homes across the county have trees on them and another had an awning blown from it.
“There might be some more out there we don’t know about,” Barnett said. “We are out trying to assess those damages now.”
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