A storm that blew through Athens around 3 p.m. on Monday tore the roof off of a convenience store and had lightning that indirectly struck a woman.,Charm bracelet
Mike Coyne with the National Weather Service said the damage to Jiffy Food Mart at U.S. 72 and Lindsay Lane was due to a microburst at 3:13 p.m.. He said winds were clocked at 75 miles per hour.
Athens Fire and Rescue Chief Danny Southard said once the wind ripped the roof off,discount tiffany, water poured into the building. No one was injured. He was not sure how many people were inside the structure.
"I know some of the firefighters at Station 2, just south of the store, looked out and saw their personal vehicles sliding sideways about that time," Southard said.
He said the debris field went east toward Lindsay Shopping Center. Southard said the wind was blowing from the northeast to the southwest.
Southard had the power cut to the structure, and firefighers and police blocked access to the parking lot and building.
There also were downed trees and limbs south of the area, which Southard, Coyne and Daphne Ellison with Athens-Limestone Emergency Management Agency were surveying Monday evening.
Southard said about 15 minutes before the microburst, lightning struck something near Oak Leaf Apartments, and a woman outside felt the strike.
"She said she felt it tingle, but she was able to describe what happened and seemed to be OK," Southard said.
Athens-Limestone Hospital treated the woman, who was in her 20s or 30s, as a precaution,tiffany, Southard said.
Limestone County Sheriff’s Department Lt. Brad Curnutt said that in the county, there was a report of a tree down on Yarbrough Road and a lightning strike at Arrowhead Landing,tiffany money clips, which caught a bean field on fire.
Curnutt said Decatur Fire and Rescue went to the field fire.