While still recovering from the damage of a tornado that rippedthrough the western half of the county late last week, Monday nightstorms toppled trees and blocked roads, emergency officialssaid.

“We had a lot of trees down. A lot of power outages,” saidClifford Galey, director of the Lincoln County Civil Defense. “Weactually had more roads blocked this time than we did the otherday.”

Galey said damage Monday was more widespread than that ofThursday’s tornado, and that probably accounted for the 35-40blocked roads throughout the county. Volunteers again came forwardto help and the roads were cleared by 8 a.m. Tuesday.

“In all the years I’ve been doing this, this is the first time Ican remember storms this bad so close to Christmas,” he said.

East Lincoln and Topisaw remained without power Tuesdayafternoon, he said, but it was restored in time for Christmas Evefestivities.

Some homes did not escape the high winds unscathed. About ahandful of homes were damaged during the night, Galey said.Fortunately, however, “they were all still livable” and no injurieswere reported.

A tree about one foot in diameter fell on one end of DavidPoole’s trailer in Fair River.

“It kind of bowed the ceiling in about halfway,” Poole said.”When you went into the room, you could see the tree through theroof and rain was pouring in. We got it covered with a tarp andthat’s been holding.”

Despite his efforts, he said, there is still some house contentdamage in the bedroom beneath the damaged roof and the carpet isruined.

He hasn’t done any more than necessary to safeguard the housecontents, he said, because he wanted to leave it as it was untilthe insurance adjuster could look at it.

“No one was hurt and that’s what is important,” Poole said.

Galey said that 70-90 mph winds were registered about 2:30 a.m.Tuesday, but there did not seem to be a tornado mixed in with thestorms.

“I’ve heard a lot of reports from people who said they heard atornado, but I didn’t see anything on the radar to confirm it,” hesaid.

In Monticello, firefighter Hugh Summers was on duty. He said hewas watching the storm from the front window of the station when hesaw a stirring sight.

“I was standing here watching the flag pole where the old postoffice used to be,” he said. “The flag was standing straight out inthe wind and the pole was whipping back and forth about three feetin each direction.”

He said he half expected the pole to snap, but at the end of thestorm the pole still stood proudly and the wet flag hung wearilybut defiantly atop it.

Damage in Wesson was light, according to the police department.There was some tree damage and one trailer home received some minordamage from a fallen tree, but no major damage was reported.