UPDATE #1
All lanes on Highway 212 at the South River have been closed between County Line Road and Highway 81 due to flooding, according to the Newton County Sheriff's Office (NCSO). The NCSO also stated on social media that , Lummus Road is closed at the intersection of Rocky Plains.
Most have gotten power back at this point. The power tracking website FindEnergy.com lists 115 outages in Newton County out of 36,100 tracked customers.
Snapping Shoals EMC said that 1,300 customers were left without power across their coverage area as of 10 p.m. Friday night. The city of Covington is reporting 10 outages left as of 4 p.m. Friday.
ORIGINAL STORY
NEWTON COUNTY – Hurricane Helene has mostly come and gone through Newton County.
The worst of the storm took place Thursday night with rainfall and storms moving through the area. Newton County, however, was mostly fortunate as the storm traveled to the eastern side of the state.
Despite this, Newton County did not get through entirely unscathed.
Road closures of Mt. Tabor Road and Sockwell Road were reported as closed in the early hours of Friday morning, according to the Newton County Sheriff’s Office (NCSO). Bryant Road at Highway 81 was also reported as blocked due to a fallen tree on power lines, but has since reopened.
Newton County public information officer Bryan Fazio took to Facebook via the official government page to report that public safety crews are working to clean up the aftermath of the storm. Fazio also advised county residents to stay off the roads unless absolutely necessary while public safety is out and about.
“If you could, remain off the roads unless you absolutely need to travel,” Fazio said. “Although the storm has seemed to pass, because of the rain amounts we did receive, any wind can really make a tree fall without a problem.”
The city of Covington has also felt the impact of the storm.
At 5:25 a.m. Friday morning a fallen tree was reported on Woodhaven Dr. in Covington. That tree has since been cleared.
A water main break was reported at 7 a.m. Friday morning on the Access Road at Nagoya. Water was restored later that day at 12:45 p.m.
At 7:30 a.m. Friday morning a tree was reported down on Martin St. The tree was removed by 10:15 a.m.
At 9:30 a.m. on Friday, a fallen tree was reported on Herring Street off of Alcovy Road. The tree was removed by 2 p.m., but debris remains.
At 10:25 a.m. on Friday, another fallen tree was reported on Old Monticello and King St. This was removed by 12:45 p.m.
At 7:45 p.m. on Friday a large oak tree was reported down on Thompson Avenue in Covington. This caused a blockage in the road and two broken power lines, according to a social media post from the city of Covington.
Snapping Shoals EMC reported as many as 14,000 customers without power at one point. As of 11:02 a.m. Friday morning, approximately 8,000 customers were without power.
According to a power tracking site, FindEnergy.com, 1,959 out of 36,100 tracked customers in the county were without power as of 11:46 a.m. Friday morning.
The city of Covington reported that there was a peak of 506 power outages. As of 10:45 a.m. Friday morning that number has dropped to 267.
A number of areas that are prone to flooding did flood over, but no substantial damage has been reported. Perhaps the most infamous flood spot in the county, the ROSS Dress for Less store on 3157 Elm St. in Covington, did not receive substantial flooding.
When asked about any injuries that may have occurred, the NCSO told The Covington News that there was "nothing to report" on that end.
