Severe straight line winds came through early Thursday morning, leaving a path of destruction across the southeastern portion of Cherokee County – from Spring Garden into Pleasant Gap over to Highway 278 and on to the Georgia State line, and back into Piedmont.

Dozens of huge trees were affected with many blocking roadways and others falling across houses and vehicles – in many cases power poles were snapped from the force of the winds and as a result there were widespread power outages in Piedmont and not just in southeast Cherokee County, but in Centre and other locations as well, as transformers were adversely affected,

Cherokee Electric Co op crews and Piedmont Electric employees are out working to restore service to affected areas as quickly as possible.  Many red lights are out, so remember those should be treated as a four-way stop.

Fortunately, at this point, we’ve had no reports of anyone being hurt – we’ll have additional information as it becomes available.