Severe storms knock out power, cause damage

A severe thunderstorm and a possible tornado caused significant damage in Hopkinsville and Christian County Friday night.

The first severe thunderstorm warning for Christian County came out just after 10 p.m. and much of the city was soon without electricity as damaging winds knocked down trees and power lines.

Christian County Emergency Management Director Randy Graham says there dozens of trees and power lines blown down and numerous calls of residents trapped inside homes after trees were blown onto those structures.

Hopkinsville Fire Department Lt. Payton Rogers says that minor injury was a person who was inside a home that a tree had fallen onto.

The top floor of The Mixer on Sixth Street in downtown Hopkinsville collapsed, causing severe damage throughout the structure, the steeple was blown off of Virginia Street Baptist Church and a warehouse took heavy damage at Third and Liberty Street.

Lt. Rogers says two employees of The Mixer were inside during the collapse, but escaped injury. He says several downtown buildings sustained exterior damage and some have broken glass. Apartments on West Fourth Street have superficial damage, with insulation blown onto the street and cars parked in the lot.

Graham says a team from the National Weather Service in Paducah was set to be in Hopkinsville Saturday to determine if it was straight line winds or a tornado that caused the damage, but there appears to be evidence it was tornadic.

Richie Acevedo is the owner of Hip Hop Town USA on Main Street and says the situation became serious quickly as that storm moved in as he and other musicians were practicing downtown.

He believes he saw a tornado downtown and told folks nearby to take cover.

Acevedo ate dinner at The Mixer earlier in the evening and says the owners told him they were trying to send their employees home early to be safe from the weather before it arrived.

Todd County Emergency Management Director Daniel Smith did not have any reports of significant damage there and the National Weather Service did not have any damage reports from Trigg County.