Storm downs trees


Thursday, June 14, 2012
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Storm downs trees

By SUE WATSON
Staff Writer

Photo by Sue Watson

North East Electric Power workers repair a snapped pole in Waterford. Resident Ray Gallagher estimated winds of 50 to 60 miles per hour were responsible for the damage.

Late afternoon and early evening thunderstorms swept across the area Monday, blowing down trees over roads and snapping at least one utility pole in Waterford.

Marshall County administrator Larry Hall said the storm took two paths as it swept to the south and east causing widespread problems with trees downed across the roads. One path was through the Red Banks area and the other came through Slayden and Mt. Pleasant.

“We had about 30 to 35 trees down from the Tennessee line at Highway 302 and Highway 72, down to South Slayden Road and Hudsonville Road, and at Red Banks Road and Lee’s Crossing on Hernando Road, and on Brownlee Road to the south,” Hall said.

Don Hollingsworth, general manager of the Holly Springs Utility Department, said widespread electricity outages occurred and half the telephone system at HSUD also took a hit, making it difficult for customers to report outages.

The phone system took a hit about 6:30 p.m. Monday, leaving office manager D. Miller doing her best with what was left of the system, he said.

The telephone system was still down at HSUD at mid-morning Tuesday and some customers couldn’t call in.

“At one time we had over 2,000 customers out,” Hollingsworth said. “The 46 line through the national forest had a tree over the line and that knocked out all of Ashland.”

Fifteen customers were still without power at daybreak Tuesday, he said.

The storm packed more of a punch than was expected, Hollingsworth said. The Tombigbee area at Tupelo in Lee County still had about 4,000 customers out Tuesday morning, Hollingsworth said.

The heavy storms Monday afternoon also left a little less than 1,000 without power in the Northcentral Electric coverage area, according to general manager Kevin Doddridge. He said the bulk of the problems were in the northern portions of DeSoto and Marshall counties.

Doddridge said “little pieces of trouble were still popping up” Tuesday morning, but for most, their electricity had been restored.

He sent crews to Tippah County to help Tuesday and later Northcentral crews were going to north Louisiana to assist with storm-related problems.

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