Strong winds cause damage in communities across Floyd County

FLOYD COUNTY, Ky. (WYMT) - As winds whipped through the region on Saturday, several communities in Floyd County were impacted by wind damage.

Around midday, the Triangle Market in Martin had its roof ripped off and carried down KY-122, causing road closures and minor damage to parked cars.

“It’s blown a lot of debris out onto KY-122 and KY-1428. It’s damaged a few vehicles,” said Deven Hutchinson, a firefighter for the city of Martin.

Soon after the incident in Martin, winds brought down powerlines in the Warco community, just minutes away near the Floyd County Community Center, which closed a portion of KY-80.

Police and fire crews in the area responded along with linemen crews who worked to reopen the road around 2:45 p.m.

At 3:30 p.m., crews in Prestonsburg were dispatched after winds heavily damaged an apartment building in the downtown area, but officials confirmed that nobody was injured.

“Our fire department was on it quick,” said Prestonsburg Mayor Les Stapleton. “Our fire department and police department had the scene cleared within 4 minutes. They made sure the apartments were cleared.”

First responders added road closures and delays could be possible into early Sunday morning.

“A lot of the roads, side roads, county roads, will be shut down a majority of the day just due to debris and trees and power lines and it’s something to look at all the way up until the early hours of tomorrow morning,” said Hutchinson.

County officials also said that teamwork between fire, police, and electric companies across the county was paramount in situations such as this. Adding that, if you do find yourself in a dangerous situation, call 911 immediately.

“If there’s a situation, just call 911, they’ll get right on it, trust me,” said Floyd County Judge-Executive Robbie Williams. “Our phone’s blown up all day. I’d say we’ve had probably over 100 calls today to the 911 center here in Prestonsburg.”

Williams added that as of 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, nearly 25 percent of Floyd County homes were without power.

A post on the Floyd County Fiscal Court Facebook page said some customers could be without power for “2-3 days”.

“We wanted to share this information so you can go ahead and make arrangements for the next couple of days if you are living in an affected area,” officials said.

To see more information on power outages across the region, click here.

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