Severe weather rolls through Middle Tennessee
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Middle Tennessee was hit with severe weather Saturday, where a majority of the counties were put under watches and warnings for thunderstorms, flash flooding and tornadoes.
Coffee County received its fair share of thunderstorms Saturday as Tullahoma received 4.87 inches of rain, while Manchester received 4.66 inches of rain, according to the National Weather Service.
The storms and rainfall caused various roads to flood and trees to fall, blocking roads as several county and city agencies, like the Coffee County Emergency Management Agency and the Coffee County Highway Department, advised residents to stay home and if they had to travel to use extreme caution, even after the storms had passed.
Both Duck River Electric Membership Corporation (DREMC) and Tullahoma Utilities Authority (TUA) had their crews out during the storms to restore power outages in neighborhoods and dealing with down power lines.
“TUA electric crews worked through the night repairing downed lines, broken poles, and other damage caused by the high winds,” TUA officials said. “We truly appreciate your patience and understanding as crews worked to get everyone restored safely.”
DREMC also shared its assessment of customers who lost power during the storms.
“Much appreciation goes to the DREMC team for the long hours worked in very dangerous weather conditions to restore power to approximately 2,000 members affected by the severe storms on Friday and Saturday,” DREMC officials said. “Most of the outages were caused by trees falling across power distribution and service lines and lightning striking electrical equipment.”
DREMC also stressed the importance of being safe during weather events such as the storms on Saturday.
“When energized lines are brought down to the ground, the area around them can potentially become energized, too,” DREMC officials said. “We are thankful for your patience as the DREMC family worked to restore power safely and as quickly as possible.”
Though Coffee County only saw rain, a National Weather Service storm damage team based in Nashville confirmed Sunday, March 16, that it found evidence that a tornado touched down and made its way through Bedford and Rutherford counties. According to the preliminary information gathered by the team, the tornado was an EF-1 tornado that was 300 yards wide and traveled a distance of 4.5 miles between US Highway 41a and 231 with wind speeds reaching a maximum speed of 95 mph.
