COVINGTON, Tennessee — Saturday night leading into the midnight hours of Sunday, Sept. 25, the town of Covington was rocked by straight-line winds and heavy rain just a few hours before the final day of the 27th annual Covington Heritage Festival…
“It was so devastating that many of the vendors’ tents were blown away their merchandise was destroyed.” Covington mayor, Justin Hanson said. “So, we made the difficult decision to cancel the festival a day early, but we had to do what we had to do.”
The effects of the storm left the town square, as one resident describes, looking like a warzone.
The Covington, Tennessee, Police Department released photos Sunday showing heavy damage to the town's Heritage Festival due to storm winds and rain.
Police said tents and booths bore the brunt of the damage, which they said was caused by straight-line winds, and downed trees that blocked some roads in the downtown area.
Some store windows were also smashed by debris.
Police said there were power lines downed throughout the city, but a heavy concentration in the downtown area made multiple roads blocked.
"Throughout the night our citizens came along side our officers and helped to clear roadways," Covington Police said in a Facebook post. "Thank you to each of them and all our first responders!"
With tents upside down and trees in the street, first responders and community members began to clean up after mother nature.
“Everybody comes together and that's the beautiful thing about Covington.” Hanson. “When there is a need everybody comes together, and that’s what was seen here in the past twenty-four hours.”
By the afternoon, the city’s town square was cleared of the damage.
“We had street sweepers here.” Community member, Ed Doyle said. “The roads were clean by 2 p.m., and we were doing a prayer service.”
People of the community circled the town square holding hands while Doyle led the town in prayer.
The Covington Fire Department confirmed that there were no injuries caused by the storm.
The National Weather Service has not released a report regarding the Storm.
The Heritage Festival, which started Thursday and was scheduled throughout the weekend, cancelled its vendor fair Sunday, but they said a gospel choir will still perform at 2 p.m.