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Tree limbs toppled, thousands lose power after powerful storms blow through ETN

Roughly 40,000 people lost power Thursday night when severe storms toppled tree limbs and dumped rain across East Tennessee.

East Tennessee braced itself for a rough night as severe storms moved through the area Friday into Saturday morning.

By midnight, numerous trees limbs had been dropped on roads and tens of thousands across the area had lost power, particularly in in Knox, Anderson, Sevier, Roane, Grainger and Union Counties.

Crews had to clean up a tree across the road at Fairmont Boulevard in Knoxville:

A tree limb had fallen across the road at Mascot Road and Whirlwind Way.

Roughly 40,000 people lost power Friday as the storms rolled through.

The majority of outages were in Knox County. The Knoxville Utilities Board said nearly 30,000 people had lost power after the peak of the storms.

Weather Forecast

KUB had restored power to nearly half of those customers and more than 13,000 were still without power by 12:30 a.m. Saturday.

Sevier County Electric reported roughly 3,000 short-term outages at the height of the storm and had restored power to nearly everyone by 12:30 a.m.

Appalachian Electric Cooperative reported around 2,000 outages.

Holston Electric reported around 3,200 outages, and the Lenoir City Utilities Board had less than 1,000 people without power following the storms. Crews were still working to resolve those outages as of midnight.

Intense lightning, hail and heavy rain also present in the storm.

No major flooding had been reported with the first round of these storms as of midnight. The National Weather Service issued areal flooding advisories for portions of the western viewing area including Roane and Cumberland counties where nearly 2-3 inches of rain fell in places.

Flooded roads could still be an issue, and it will be difficult to tell how bad the flooding is on the road if you are driving at night. If you spot standing water on the road -- play it safe. Remember 'turn around, don't drown.'

A brush fire reportedly sparked up from lightning off Sparta Highway in Cumberland County. Fire crews put it out without any damage to structures. A tree also fell on a power line there and was resolved quickly.

Lightning with this storm was widespread and frequent, lighting up the night sky as if it were daylight.

This wasn't taken in daylight -- this was in the midst of a lightning strike! Taken by Kristy Fowler in Bean Station.
Lightning struck the stack at the Kingston Steam Plant (Submitte by Adrienne Jarvis Dodrill)

A second round of storms is expected to arrive in the area before sunrise Saturday. A Tornado Watch remains in effect for the area until 4:00 a.m. Saturday.

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