thedailytimes.com : Your 24/7 news source

High winds downed numerous hardwood trees in the Louisville and Rockford area at about 9:30 p.m. Monday.

“Louisville really got hit hard by the high winds,” said Troy Morgan, Alcoa Electric Department supervisor.

The fallen trees caused the system to lose a breaker at Chandler Substation off Topside Road.

Morgan estimated that 1,000 residents were without power for different lengths of time.

An estimated 40-foot-tall oak fell up a hill and across the driveway of Carl Bennett on East Cumberland Drive in the Lakemont area of Louisville. The tree had been uprooted.

He said it could have been a micro-burst. Radar showed that when showers were moving through the area around 9:30 p.m., gusts were up to 40 miles per hour, according to a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Morristown.

“At 9:30 p.m. my wife asked is that the wind or an airplane and then we heard a crack and found the tree down,” Bennett said. “The noise lasted only a few seconds.”

Bennett’s house is at the top of the hill and his son lives farther down. The family earlier had trees removed that may have threatened the son’s house. After Monday night’s storm, more need to be cut, Bennett noted.

His power came back on at 3 a.m. Tuesday.

Morgan said all the homes in Little River Mobile Home Park near Alcoa Fire Department were without power.

Other areas affected included Conger Road, Bear Hollow Loop, Deer Run Drive, Jones Bend Road, Wrights Ferry Road, Topside Road, East Old Topside, Mimosa Estates and Boat Dock Road.

The power was out for 11 and a half hours for most residents.

Baron Swafford, head of Maryville Electric Department, said there were outages on Russell Road, Williams Mill Road and Wheeler Road in Rockford near the end of the Maryville system.