County sees high winds, low damage from storm

Although wind speed peaked at more than 50 mph, the Hardin County area saw minimal damage following Wednesday morning’s storm.

According to the weather station at Fort Knox, 0.79 inches of rain fell between 4 a.m. and 11 a.m. Wednesday. The highest gust of wind was recorded at 57 mph. The Mesonet automated weather station at Cecilia recorded winds of 46 mph at 4:20 a.m. and 1.41 inches of rain today.

Tornado sirens went off around the county at 4:12 a.m. Wednesday, said Doug Finlay, deputy director of Hardin County Emergency Management.

An hour later, a Kentucky Utilities circuit went out in Hardin County, cutting power to 265 customers, spokesman Cliff Feltham said.

“We didn’t find an exact cause but think it was storm related,” Feltham said.

The outage in Hardin County was the largest KU reported Wednesday, he said. However, Feltham added there were smaller outages scattered throughout the 77 Kentucky counties the company services.

A small power outage was reported in West Point, which affected about a dozen residents near North 15th and Geoghegan streets, Police Chief Butch Curl said.

According to Curl, the outage was caused after a tree limb struck power lines.

Reports of downed power lines in West Point were the only weather-related calls 911 dispatchers relayed Wednesday morning, said Bob Hammonds, director of Hardin County’s E-911 Dispatch Center.

“There were no emergency calls related to the weather to fire, EMS or — as far as we know — to law enforcement,” Hammonds said. “It was surprisingly quiet and we’re thankful for that.”

The Hardin County Sheriff’s Office received a damage report at 7:30 a.m. concerning a snapped power pole near the Four Corners area of White Mills, spokesman Greg Lowe said.

“(The caller) was afraid the wires were going to come loose and get in the roadway,” Lowe said.

In Meade County, portions of Ky. 1638 from Brandenburg to Muldraugh and U.S. 60 from Flaherty to Brandenburg were closed while officials cleared debris and power was restored, said Ron Dodson, director of Meade County Emergency Management.

Both closures lasted for about three hours, he said.

Because of the heavy rainfall, the ground was soft, allowing for the straight-line winds to push trees out of the ground, Dodson said.

Some reports were made regarding roofs being blown from sheds or siding from houses, he said, but no businesses or residences reported “total devastation.”

Meade County Sheriff Butch Kerrick said no evacuations or injuries were reported because of the storm.

According to Finlay, all of the sirens in Hardin County worked Wednesday morning. There are 11 sirens in Elizabethtown, nine in Radcliff and 14 in the county, officials reported.

“Everything worked well,” Finlay said. “We missed another one.”

Sarah Bennett can be reached at (270) 505-1750 or sbennett@thenewsenterprise.com.