Storm left 1,000 households in the dark

Oct. 25– The Hardin County Emergency Management agency reports Sunday evening’s severe thunderstorm caused estimated damage of more than $91,000 to houses, apartments and businesses, primarily in Savannah.

Tennessee Valley Electric Cooperative General Manager Jerry Taylor said about 1,000 customers lost power when it struck shortly before 6 p.m., and a majority had the lights back on about two hours later.

Most of the outages were caused by trees falling on lines, he said.

"It was like a little strip from Hardin Farm Supply all the way to Airport Road," said Taylor. "We were fortunate that just one cell came through."

Todd Mask was at his 250 Meadow Lane home with his wife and young daughter when the storm, packing winds of 60-plus miles per hour, blew a tree over on his house.

"They were in the bath tub with a mattress over them while I was in the living room trying to save whatever I could," he said. "It only lasted a couple of minutes but it did a lot of damage to the house. It made a loud boom noise."

Savannah Fire Department Capt. Mark Kennedy described the Mask family as "really lucky."

He said the department’s volunteers were called out to scour the southeast side of the city, looking for damage and helping those in need. No one was found injured.

"A lot of power poles were snapped," Kennedy noted, and "dime-sized hail just covered the ground."

Taylor said TVEC crews worked until about 3:30 a.m. today, and then came back to finish the job.

A total of 17 properties sustained storm damage. A rental duplex on Stout Street was the hardest-hit at a 50 percent loss, according to the local EMA.

Hardin County EMA Director Melvin Martin said an official report is not yet available from the National Weather Service, but the damage was apparently caused by straight-line winds.

Although a tornado warning was issued for the same storm cell in adjoining Wayne County, "there’s nothing to indicate it was a tornado" here, he said.