Officials say the extent of the widespread damage left in the wake of tornadoes, flooding, and straight-line winds that battered Cullman County on Easter Sunday will take several days to fully assess.

Three tornadoes moved through the county during Sunday evening’s extended, wave-upon-wave system of strong storms, according to a Monday finding by the Huntsville office of the National Weather Service (NWS). In addition to an EF-1 tornado that struck between Good Hope and Johnson’s Crossing, another EF-2 tornado touched down near the Walter community; while a third EF-0 twister caused damage between Cullman and Holly Pond.

The heavy rainfall with Sunday’s storms also led to widespread wash-outs at roads and bridges throughout the county, according to Cullman County Emergency Management Agency director Phyllis Little. The deluge caused widespread flooding in Cullman and Hanceville as well.

County and municipal road crews worked overnight Sunday to clear downed trees blocking rural roads, and the county road department made temporary closures at seven area bridges that had either been damaged or, in at least one case, destroyed by the flooding.

“We had at least seven bridges that had water completely over them,” said Little. “The one on County Road 1447 [in northern Cullman County near Eva] is a total washout. The others are reparable, but unfortunately, with a widespread local disaster like this, it always comes with a big price tag.” Several bridges remain barricaded until the road department can inspect them and, if needed, make repairs.

Storm damage to local residences displaced at least three area families, said Little. Two are receiving temporary relocation assistance through the Red Cross, while the third is temporarily living in a camper trailer on their property, which was undamaged.

In all, the storm system left a wake of damage that isn’t isolated to a single area — although the wind and tornado damage affected some areas more than others. But with flooding an issue throughout the county, emergency responders and public works crews at both Cullman and Hanceville saw “everything from trees on houses to trees on roads to power lines down to flooding,” Little explained. “In a lot of places, the creeks rose so fast that people had water backed up into their yards and basements.”

While fallen trees created temporary road closures and hazards Sunday, crews will be back out during the week, continuing to clear the remaining debris and assess structural damage on local roads and bridges. Overall, the cleanup from Sunday’s storms is too extensive to be an overnight process, said Little.

“With so many trees down, all they were able to do in a lot of areas was to get it off to the shoulder on Sunday, so emergency vehicles could get through,” she said. “There’s still a lot of cleanup that has got to be done. These weren’t little trees. In a lot of places, we had great, big old trees coming down.”