Winds, rain blow down trees, power-lines in Abbeville

Heavy winds and rain arrived quickly Tuesday afternoon, leaving parts of Abbeville with damage and no electricity.
The height of the weather event hit around 1:30 p.m.
“I was sitting in my office watching the storm roll in,” Abbeville Mayor Mark Piazza said. “The wind kicked up drastically.”
Power outages hit various parts of the city.
“I talked to some of the councilman and it looks like about 10 to 15 pockets of the city lost power,” Piazza said.
Most of the damage occurred on the west side of the Vermilion River. A large tree snapped next to the tennis courts behind Vermilion Catholic, just as parents lined up in their vehicles to pick up students at Mount Carmel.
“There were trees down on Old Kaplan Higway,” Piazza said. “They were completely blocking the road over there. Another tree fell on the nearby West St. Mary Street area.”
That tree knocked out power in the area. The wind also split an electrical pole across the street from the cemetery on the Old Kaplan Highway.
Throughout the area trash can lay on their sides, branches covered the streets, basketball goals and trampolines moved from their original spots, one dismantled trampoline was left blocking a driveway.
“The west side seems to have been hit worse than the rest of the town,” Piazza said.
The storm hit fast, but city crews responded just as quickly.
“We had a full (street and bridge) staff today,” Piazza said. “They were really just coming in from doing their regular work. They were all together when the storm hit. They were dispatched out to various areas.
“They were ready to go.”