HUNTSVILLE — The storms that rolled through the area Friday left two men dead, houses and businesses damaged and thousands without electricity. There were also two tornadoes spawned by the storms, according to the National Weather Service.
The two deaths, one man in Huntsville and one in Lexington, were caused by falling trees, according to officials.
A Huntsville Utilities line worker was shocked while performing storm restoration work. He was transported to Huntsville Hospital and later transferred to UAB Hospital in Birmingham, where he is in stable condition.
“The worker who was injured is in stable condition and being treated for their injuries,” said Huntsville Utilities Community Relations Director Joe Gehrdes. “The people that do post-storm repair and restoration work have very dangerous jobs.”
The National Weather Service’s Huntsville office reported two EF-1 tornadoes in Jackson County. The first began near Section. There was some damage, a mobile home was overturned, and there were downed trees around Section, Henager and Ider but no injuries were reported.
The second tornado touched down near Pisgah and stayed on the ground for about three minutes, the weather service said. It uprooted trees and caused some minor damage but no injuries.
Power outages from downed lines and poles were reported from the Shoals to Jackson County as the line of storms swept through the region bringing winds with gusts up to 85 mph and torrential rains.
Huntsville Utilities reported about 40,000 customers were without power; there were less than 300 Huntsville Utilities customers still without service Sunday.
“The storm front that moved through Friday morning did widespread and extensive damage to our electric distribution system,” Gehrdes said. “Everyone involved worked hard to minimize the impact and restore service to all of our customers, but the repair work will continue on for some time.”
Crews with Athens Utilities were working on outages affecting more than 6,000 customers. The utility reported four major circuits out with trees falling on lines, wind blowing lines and debris snagging lines.
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