The severe thunderstorm that passed through Grayson County Sunday night has been tabbed a powerful straight-line wind event.
The National Weather Service (NWS) damage survey team, which was in Grayson County on Tuesday, said straight-line winds of up to 100 miles per hour brought a large tree down on top of an outbuilding on Dixie Avenue in Leitchfield at approximately 10:56 Monday night. Winds also leveled a 20×50 pole barn, Clarkson Fire Chief Andy Cain told the NWS, about one mile north of the Clarkson city limits at 11:17 Monday night.
Additionally, hail up to 1.25 inches fell in Caneyville as well as six miles north northwest of Welch’s Creek between 11:20 and 11:27 Monday evening.
“ … We found sporadic tree damage across the county. (The) main concentration of damage, including a roof peeled off a home and numerous trees and power poles down, was focused between Millwood and Caneyville west toward the Grayson County border,” a NWS damage surveyor said. “The damage pattern is consistent with straight-line wind with damage strewn in one direction.”
The NWS surveyor added: “There was an area along Windy Ridge Road (about three miles south of Caneyville) that was somewhat interesting as it was more path-like damage vs. sporadic.”
Power outage update
As of early Wednesday morning, there were still 1,600 Warren RECC customers without power in Grayson County. All Kentucky Utilities customers left without electricity after the storm have had power restored.
At the height of outages, more than 5,500 Grayson County customers were powerless.
“At this time, our goal is to complete essentially all of the restoration by the end of the day on Wednesday, with some isolated outages possibly lasting into Thursday,” Warren RECC said in a Tuesday afternoon press release. “We have restored transmission outages and the largest distribution outages. We are now restoring single lines, roads, neighborhoods, and individual houses. This restoration work will be slower, and we ask for your patience. We currently have over 35 additional crews aiding us in our effort, and we are working around the clock to get power restored as soon as possible.”
Warren RECC had 7,600 customers without power early Wednesday morning, down from approximately 29,000 members without electricity at the peak of the outages.
Cecilia twister causes carnage, tornado confirmed in Russell County
NWS damage survey teams said an EF-1 twister with maximum sustained winds of 110 miles per hour touched down in Russell County.
On Monday, officials confirmed an EF-2 tornado with peak winds of 115 miles per hour caused extensive damage in Cecilia. The twister, which struck at 10:27 p.m. local time, was on the ground for 1.17 miles and was 300 yards wide.
Trees, barns, homes, outbuildings, and other structures received heavy damage, as did an RV, which was flipped onto its side.
Edmonson, Hart damage
Edmonson County experienced “significant tree damage and power lines down,” causing roads to become impassable near Sunfish. Additionally, windows were busted out of homes and a fence securing horses was pulled out of the ground, also near Sunfish.
Approximately two miles south of Rhoda, an RV garage suffered “significant damage.”
In Hart County, Munfordville, Hardyville, Priceville, and Linwood had “numerous trees down (and) across roadways,” according to the NWS.
(Photo: Tornado damage in Cecilia, courtesy of the Nat’l Weather Service)
By Ken Howlett, News Director
Contact Ken at ken@k105.com
