Severe thunderstorms crossed the area late Tuesday morning and left structural damage to buildings and numerous trees and power lines down.
County Commissioner Seth Martindale's precinct was especially hard hit and he said that he and his crews were working with area fire departments to cut and move downed trees off of roadways as quickly and safely as possible.
The City of Jasper released the following statement:
The City of Jasper Light and Power Department has experienced multiple power outages due to a severe line of storms that has passed through our area. Crews are working to restore power. Lee Wellman the Director over Light and Power has advised there is numerous utility poles broken. We ask for your patience and understanding during these outages. We will update you when we know more. To report damage you can contact City Hall 409-384-4651, we are receiving numerous calls at this time.
City Manager Greg Kelley said late Tuesday that about 85% of the City's electrical service had been restored. However, he said due to the amount of damage and the number of poles involved, power to some homes might not be restored until as late as Thursday. He said customers of the City of Jasper's electric service on FM-2799 all the way to Bevilport could be out for some time and that there were still outages in the area north of Burch Street and East Jasper. According to Kelley another hard hit area was along Linton Lanier Drive on the west side of town.
Jasper County Precinct 1 Commissioner Seth Martindale said shortly before 2:00 on Tuesday that for that the majority of the roads in his precinct were open following the cleanup. However, he said that anyone seeing a tree down across the road should call him and let him know.
Due to the storm and the associated power outages, classes at the Jasper Independent School District were dismissed at 1:00 pm on Tuesday. However power has been restored to all campuses and classes are scheduled to run as normal on Wednesday.
Workers of the Jasper Newton Electric Cooperative are also working to restore power to affected areas of their system.
https://www.kjas.com/news/local_news/article_9d744ff0-f91d-11ef-ad6c-0fa374025ed2.html