Paris, Tenn.–“What a hectic evening last night!”, Henry County Emergency Management Agency Director Ron Watkins spoke for a lot of Henry Countians who were rattled by the events of Saturday night, with tornado warnings, torrential rainfall, heavy winds, lightning, thunder and hail.
Watkins said EMA has heard of one home with storm damage and he asked for your reports of wind and flood damage to your home. He asked people to post them on the EMA Facebook page, along with location.
“A couple of roads were washed out, one on CLIFTY Parkhill Rd, and another on Old Union Loop/Rd. and reminded everyone to not drive into flooded roads. “You don’t know if the road is still safe,” he said.
Over 300 persons used a school tornado shelter last night and many more sought shelter in cellars and basements at their homes. The Paris Board of Public Utilities “did an amazing job of working scsttered power outages to get power back on. Henry County Highway Department and Paris Public Works and as always first responders were out in the terrible weather to close roads and clear debris and respond to emergency calls.”
Henry County Sheriff Josh Frey said deputies were responding to Parkhill Rd. and Dortch Lane early Sunday morning due to the roadways being washed out.
Our official rain measure at 4pm yesterday was around 4.5 inches of rainfall and Watkins said there was another two inches at least during the evening.
“As rain continues to drain, roads will become/remain flooded. As this cold wind picks up more trees and limbs could fall into the roadway so Please use caution out there and get ready for more cold weather next week as another artic blast of winter appears,” Watkins said.
Photo of Parkhill Road washout. HCSO photo.