Huntingdon residents look back on Wednesday’s storm
HUNTINGDON, Tenn. — Huntingdon residents that were affected by the storms on Wednesday are sharing their stories.
One man described the moment a tree fell on the home where he lives.
“We could hear the rain getting louder, and the power started flickering on and off. It started getting pretty loud outside. I went to the front door to open the door to look out the screen door and saw everything flying and hitting the windows, and I shut the door real quick like I was going to stop it from coming in the house,” said Labe Ezell, a storm survivor.
That’s when the Ezell family decided to act.
“They saw how I reacted so her and my dad came in. I opened the door and told them look at this, and when I opened the door up we saw the trees breaking and that one fell on the house. Of course it was dark. We just shut the door and took off running in every direction,” Ezell said.
Ezell says the magnitude of the storm was unexpected.
“There wasn’t a warning at all. I mean it was just hard rain and then next thing you know trees are snapping and falling on the house,” Ezell said.
He also says it did not last long.
“We really didn’t know which way to go, but it was all over within seconds. It just got real loud, hit, and it was over,” Ezell said.
Walter Smothers, the Director of Public Safety in Huntingdon, says several areas were affected.
After inspecting the damage, his team noticed what may have led to many trees falling.
“A lot of trees that were unhealthy, that didn’t have a sustained root structure. It blew them over. We had several houses with trees on them and a loss of power in several area until today sometime when the electric department was able to put new utility poles up and return service to those areas,” Smothers said.
Smothers says despite all the damage done, there is good news.
There were no injuries or fatalities reported in Huntingdon or Carroll County.
The National Weather Service confirmed Thursday afternoon that tornado touched down in the area around Voss Lane to the west of Highway 70.
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