The leading storm in a cold front pounded parts of Marion County with heavy rains and strong winds early Saturday morning, knocking out power and knocking down trees and tree limbs.
At least two large trees were pulled out of the ground and crashed to the ground. One in the 1000 block of South Franklin hit the front of a home, while the other fell across the front of a car on the 300 block of South Maple Street.
Salem Police say those in the home were able to get out safely.
A number of other tree limbs and sometimes full trees fell in other locations in Salem and Marion County. Salem City Public Works Crews were called out to remove the damaged trees from the roadways, one that had block South College Street.
The storm did not to be as severe in Centralia, where the city fire department was not called out to any incidents.
Ameren and Tri-County Electric both handled multiple power outages. One outage in Odin lasted over seven hours. Tri County Electric had most power restored when an outage impacting 475 customers occurred late Saturday morning. The Salem Fire Protection District responded to fire alarms blamed on power outages.
Winds as the storms arrived in Salem were estimated at 50 miles per hour. Brief, intense, heavy rains were also reported.
A large tree pulled out of the ground in the 300 block of South Walnut Street in Salem and partially landed on the front of a car. Photo by Bruce Kropp.
