Trees Reported Down Across Cherokee County, Drive with Caution; Multiple Auto Accidents and Damage to Some Structures / UPDATED

Emergency crews are currently hard at work across Cherokee County responding to a large number of reports of downed trees and property damage.

A tree was across a house at 1449 County Road 251 early today with live power lines at the scene.  It appears no one was hurt and the home received no major structural damage.  The roof was reportedly blown off of a structure on County Road 40; also on 40 there was a tree down across a mobile home located across from the Spring Creek Fire Department and another homeowner, at 360 County Road 83 – reported a tree being down at that location – causing damage to their vehicle as well as a gas tank.

We urge everyone to drive with extreme care as trees have been reported down across the county due to the effects of Hurricane Zeta, which is now classified once again, as a Tropical Storm, after making landfall in Louisiana.  Extremely high winds and saturated ground has led to widespread power outages with tree after tree toppling.

WEIS Radio spoke with Randal Wilkie, CEO of Cherokee Electric Co-op, this morning and he informed us that outages are spread across the five-county co-op area with all personnel on the job to restore service as fast as they can.  Unfortunately, no assistance is forthcoming in regard to assistance being provided from outlying areas, since they’re in the same situation.

Wilkie said they have a Transmission line from Alabama Power which is affecting service in the Knighten’s Crossroads area – along with many other locations including 278 toward the Alabama/Georgia line; he added all available personnel will be working throughout the day to restore power to those affected areas.

Cherokee Electric Co op

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We also encourage all motorists to slow down anywhere you see crews working – keeping the safety of those dedicated fire department, law enforcement and power crew employees, in mind.  A car struck a tree across the roadway on County Road 93; luckily the driver appeared to be only shaken up, escaping any serious injury – we have multiple reports of auto accidents in the area due to the amount of rainfall and trees being across the road.  Live power lines had blocked one lane of traffic on Highway 9 south at Ellisville.

Trees were reported down on County Roads 111. 46, 44, 33, 27, 19, and 20 – just to name a few – and along Highways 68, 273 and 278 among others.

The awning was ripped off of Centre Elementary School by high winds – which also left live power lines in the area.

Red lights are out in many areas including across Centre – remember, treat those areas as a four-way stop and exercise caution.

We can’t stress strongly enough, motorists should slow down and drive carefully, especially on backroads where trees are across the roadway, as a result, becoming an extreme hazard.

County Road 382 Thursday morning

 

 

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