Severe storms and at least one tornado swept through Limestone County on Tuesday, snapping utility poles, downing trees, and leaving thousands of residents temporarily without power.

Due to outages, Clements High School and Blue Springs Elementary School will not be in session on Wednesday, May 21. Classes also will not meet on Wednesday for all Athens City Schools students from grades Pre-K through 5; Athens High School and Athens Middle School will operate on a 3-hour delay Wednesday.

The worst of the damage came just as darkness fell Tuesday. Alabama State Troopers reported a 7:40 p.m. lane closure near the 347 mile marker on Interstate 65 in Limestone County due to multiple fallen trees.

City officials reported as many as 15,000 Athens Utilities residents had lost power in the storms’ immediate aftermath, with crews working into the night to successfully restore power to customers along Highway 72, the Greenbrier area, and other affected locations.

The late-day storm wrought chaos on the city’s south and west sides, snapping 13 power poles along Lucas Ferry Road and causing additional damage along Sandifer Road just west of Jefferson Street. Flooding also caused the closure of Levert Avenue south of U.S. Highway 72; while a fallen tree blocked one lane of traffic along U.S. Highway 31 south of Highway 72.