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. The water is shut off for the area.

• 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.

• At 10:25 a.m. on Friday, another fallen tree was reported on Old Monticello and King St. 

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.