Wind gusts down trees, damage property

By Jessica Stith
of The Daily Times Staff

Speedy gusts of wind knocked down trees and power lines throughout Blount County on Sunday.

Officers, firefighters, electric department workers, highway department employees and representatives of Public Works were responding to trees that fell on houses, cars and in roadways throughout the day.

Marian O’Briant, public information officer for the Blount County Sheriff’s Office, said several trees and power lines were down all over Blount County and officers were responding to several alarm calls.

“The wind is setting the alarms off everywhere,” O’Briant said.

O’Briant said there was a tree that fell on top of a manufactured home on Spurgeon Lane, but no injuries were reported.

Judith Johnson said a tree also fell on a house belonging to her aunt, Helen Bendickson, at 1006 Everett Avenue. She said the tree fell during the gusty winds, but no one was injured.

Maryville Police Chief Tony Crisp said several trees were also down in Maryville. He said all of the wind damage occurred on secondary streets, and did not interfere with the main roads in the city.

Crisp said the only property damage reported by Sunday evening was a tree that hit a car on South Maple Street. He said nobody was injured in that incident.

According to Alcoa police authorities, the wind damaged power lines causing a power outage at El Sazon Mexicano Restaurant, 2650 Alcoa Highway. Officers also responded to a tree that had fallen across the railroad tracks on West Hunt Road. Officers reported the incident to CSX Transportation.

Troy Morgan, service department supervisor for Alcoa Electric Department, said electric workers have been working non-stop on power lines all weekend. He said at about 10 a.m. on Sunday, they began responding to a “ton” of outages.

“We lost three breakers,” Morgan said. “One at the Chandler substation off of Topside Road. It affected about 1,000 customers.”

The substation problems on Chandler Station Road caused those customers to lose power for about 45 minutes. He said there were also breakers down on Burnett Station Road, causing a two-hour outage, and Blockhouse Road, which effected about 800 customers for three hours.

Morgan also mentioned outages on Devault Road, New Blockhouse Road, Jones Bend Road, Rankin Ferry Loop and East Millers Cove Road.

“We were running outages just about everywhere and we’re still doing it,” Morgan said. “All of them are weather related — winds and trees.

Morgan said some customers had been without power for hours and the electric department was getting to every outage as fast as they could. He said they had called all of their employees in and expected to work throughout Sunday night.

Richie Kidd, evening shift dispatch supervisor at the Blount County Communications Center, said the damage was “widespread” in the county. She said the Blount County Highway Department was trying to get to each incident quickly, and many citizens were helping out by chopping up trees with chain saws.

Greg Cole, spokesperson for the National Weather Service in Morristown said winds sustained a speed of 41 miles per hour in the Blount County area on Sunday and the “peak gust” was 51 miles per hour. There was a tornado watch that included Blount County from 9:52 a.m. until 3 p.m.

Cole said “the low pressure area in Kentucky and Indiana should pull away” and the “winds should die down by morning.” He said wind speeds are expected to reach 10 to 20 miles per hour today.