Although the Cullman County area escaped early Saturday morning storms relatively unscathed, residents spent the late afternoon and evening on high alert with more severe weather covering the area.

The National Weather Service placed Cullman under a PDS tornado (Particularly Dangerous Situation Tornado Watch) watch early Saturday. At 5:15 p.m. the alert was upgraded to a tornado warning for much of Cullman County. A tornado watch was extended until 9 p.m. with a flash flood warning in effect until 9:30 p.m.

A request for damage reports on the Cullman County Emergency Management Agency Facebook page offered a picture of a relatively damage free Saturday. Most comments reported power outages and tree damage. An early morning lightning strike split a tree that later fell, blocking 8th Avenue in northeast Cullman next to Stiefelmeyer Park. City street department crews had the street cleared a couple of hours later. An officer on the scene said it was one of only 2 reported down in the city at that time.

At 7 p.m., approximately 1,500 Cullman Electric Cooperative members were without power in 19 outages. Crews were assessing the outages and repairing as “quickly and safely” as possible, according to a statement from the co-op.

Cullman County remains under a flood watch and wind advisory until 1 a.m. Sunday morning. Sunday afternoon could see a few showers with the rest of the week sunny and clear with highs in the low 70s.