According to our Roane County news responder, Dudley Evans, winds in Rockwood caused damage affecting many.

Early Saturday morning around 3:00 AM the city of Rockwood was hit by excessive high winds almost exceeding the level of an f-zero tornado, however, that was not confirmed by the National Weather Service. Several homes were damaged and numerous trees and power lines were damaged caused by the storms rolling across the plateau into the valley, and into the city of Rockwood and Roane County. As a result of the straight line winds Saturday morning, power was out for nearly 300 residents in the Rockwood Community alone, as Rockwood electric utility crews worked throughout early Saturday morning into Saturday night and as well Sunday to restore power to hundreds who were without power due to the excessive wind damage from the storms.

One house on Kingston Avenue at Strang Street lost its front porch after a tree had fallen on it. A tree into the roof of a double-wide in the Climbersville community was also reported and numerous other large trees were totally uprooted by the excessive winds bringing down the power lines mostly in the area on East Evans Street, Douglas Ave., and East Rockwood Street. The Rockwood Street Department also came out to help remove several trees from roadways that had many streets blocked. The downtown area was also affected in Rockwood after power poles were snapped in the alley behind the downtown district.

Rockwood Mayor Jason Jolly, who also works for Rockwood Electric, was thankful no one was hurt in the storm and thanked the many who assisted in getting things cleaned up but says there will be a lot of trees and limbs for the street department to deal with. The cleaning up will take some time as the city of Rockwood appeared to be the hardest hit by Friday night and early Saturday mornings line of storms.

Photo credit: Dudley Evans