A strong round of rapidly moving thunderstorms swept through the region Friday evening leaving widespread damage in its wake.
The storms, which tracked through Missouri and Illinois, caused little damage in those states, but intensified as it crossed the Land Between the Lakes Recreation Area in Kentucky and Tennessee.
A series of tornado warnings were issued for the area beginning in northeastern Trigg County around 6:20. The tornado warned storm made its way through south-central Christian and southern Todd counties, with the Christian County Weather Spotters reporting a rain-wrapped funnel cloud in the southern portion of the county.
Christian County Emergency Manager Randy Graham tells the News Edge there was a lot of damage reported.
Trigg County Emergency Manager David Bryant says a majority of the storm damage occurred near the King’s Chapel Road area.
Graham encourages people to stay home until the damage can be cleaned up.
At the height of the storm, more than 5,000 Pennyrile Electric members were without power across Trigg, Christian, Todd, and Logan counties. Pennyrile Spokesman Brent Gilkey told the News Edge Friday night the outages are so widespread it may take crews up to 48 hours to restore power throughout the region.
Reports indicate that a Paducah National Weather Service Storm Survey team could be in the region Saturday to evaluate the storm damage and determine if a tornado touched down in Trigg and Christian counties.
Edge Media Group’s Scott Brown took the video below immediately after the first Tornado Warning was issued in Trigg County.