Strong storms buffet area, knocking down trees and interrupting power service
Thunderstorms rolled through the Shelby area Monday night into Tuesday morning knocking down trees and interrupting electrical service.
The first round of inclement weather hit after 11 p.m. and buffeted the city with heavy rain and high winds.
Shelby received 1.26 inches of rain in 45 minutes and high winds nearing 60 miles per hour hammered the region.
A second round of storms blew into the area just after 3 a.m. and deposited another 1.02 inches of rain.
A number of electrical customers from Shelby lost power when the electric went out just after 3 a.m.
John Ensman, the director of utilities for the City of Shelby, said the power was out throughout the community and more than a 1,000 customers were affected.
“It was not a city wide outage,” said Ensman.
Utility crews for the city were out Tuesday working to restore power and Ensman believed that work would be completed early Tuesday evening.
American Electric Power, which serves outlying areas, including Plymouth and Shiloh, was reporting 1,750 without electric at noon Tuesday.
Statewide, there were 100,468 AEP customers without power.
The scoreboard at W.W. Skiles Field was leveled by the high winds when the poles it is mounted to were snapped in half.
Because of the heavy rain, portions of the football field were also under water due to flooding from the neighboring creek.
Tim Tarvin, superintendent for the Shelby City Schools, said the scoreboard was the only damage the district suffered.
“We’ll let it dry out for a few days and see if it still works,” said Tarvin. “Other than that, limbs and leaves were knocked down on school property.”
According to a Facebook post by the Shelby Police Department, Oakland Cemetery was closed Tuesday in order to allow crews to clean up storm damage.
The National Weather Service forecast office out of Cleveland is calling for a heat advisory which was initiated Tuesday and will continue until 9 p.m. Wednesday because of high humidity and temperatures expected to be as high as 96.
Because of the soaring temperatures for today, a peak power alert was issued for the city between 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Wednesday.
“Some ways to help lower the cost of electricity would be to raise the thermostat on air conditioners several degrees, avoid using high energy appliances, and turn off lights and equipment not needed during the peak power hours,” noted Ensman.
Scattered thunderstorms are back in the forecast for Thursday and the thermometer is expect to go below 90.