Many Macon County residents spent a sleepless evening, Thursday, April 10, as severe thunderstorms rolled through the area in the middle of the night. But the "real" weather events did not visit Macon County until the following day, as more severe weather brought both tornado and flash flood warnings with it.

More than three inches of rain fell in much of the area on Friday afternoon, and the eastern side of the county, including Red Boiling Springs, was under a tornado watch and warning for several hours.

The Red Boiling Springs School, the Palace Care and Rehab facility and the Willette Head Start Center all moved students and residents into interior hallways to hunker down for several hours, from shortly before 1 o'clock until about 2:30 p.m.

Elementary School students were taken to the basement of the elementary wing, which was left in near total darkness when the power briefly failed. School officials noted the inadequacy of the emergency lighting, and plan to add new back-up to the existing system.

But it was rain rather than wind or twisters that caused the most difficulty in Macon County Friday, with wide-spread road flooding, and some residents, notably in the Clampett Hollow, Cedar Bluff and and Galen Road areas, briefly trapped inside their dwellings due to high water.

Road Supervisor Charles "Chop" Porter said this Monday that "nothing completely washed out," although there was erosion damage to many county bridges as flood waters raced around and in some cases over both wooden and concrete bridges.

"There is a lot of debris in the roads, and tree limbs and debris stopped up culverts, and several trees were down, one on the Bethany Road and another on the Barefoot Road," reported Porter.

Hwy. 10-south was closed to traffic for several hours as the roadway was covered with water from the bottom of the Lafayette Hill to the bridge over Goose Creek at Ford Branch and Old Bottom Roads. Many other county roads were impassable for several hours before waters began to recede.

Transportation Supervisor Larry Holland said bus drivers had to "do a lot of backtracking" to run their Friday afternoon routes, and some parents had to meet school buses on roads with dangerous creek crossings. However, all of Macon County's students arrived home safely Friday afternoon.

Residents of other Tennessee areas were not so fortunate, as tornadoes ripped through Warren, Giles and Lawrence counties last Friday. Red Cross officials estimated approximately 50 homes were... damaged in Warren County, 30 in Giles County, and another 56 homes were damaged in Giles. One home was severely damaged in both Benton and Dixon counties.

Following a cool and rainy weekend, a cold front brought a little sleet and more rain Monday of this week, and temperatures dropped to freezing Monday night, endangering early gardens and blooming apples, grapes and blueberries.

However, the sun was shining this Tuesday morning, and temperatures were forecast to return to normal ranges for mid-April in upper middle Tennessee by mid-week.