Big wind gusts and intense rain brought damage and debris to downtown Cullman as well as across the county Monday, flooding local streets and shattering windows at the Cullman County Public Library.

No injuries or widespread damage were reported in the wake of a severe weather system that moved through the area Monday afternoon, though forecasts call for additional waves of wet and potentially stormy weather that, depending on timing, could affect traffic this week as local schools convene for the start of fall classes.

In Cullman, up to half an inch of rain fell in a short afternoon span on Monday, even as the area dried out from a weekend deluge that dumped more than 3 inches of precipitation across a sizable swath of Cullman County. Though the storms spawned no tornadoes locally, their accompanying high winds blew out windows at the main branch of the Cullman County Public Library on Clark Street NE, surprising patrons and staff inside.

“The rain was coming down fairly hard, which is fairly normal for Cullman. But, I had happened to go up front to tell something to one of my staff, and we looked outside and noticed, ‘Wow the rain really is coming down’ — and that’s right about the time that the windows broke,” said assistant library director Josie Harrington.

“Initially, I thought that a tree had fallen and hit the wall, but what seems actually to have happened is that the wind just took out the windows, with the way they’re connected to the building’s interior wall causing them to come down. Fortunately, the structure of the exterior wall is still intact and no one was hurt. We corralled everyone inside the library into our central room to take shelter.”

Harrington said the damage temporarily has forced the main library branch to close to the public until repairs can be made, though patrons can continue to return outstanding library materials to the facility’s outdoor book drop or to one of the library system’s other branches — all of which remain open — at Colony, Holly Pond, Hanceville and Garden City. Monday’s storm also toppled a tree in the same neighborhood, damaging the roof of a physician’s office at the intersection of Clark Street and 5th Avenue NE.

Cullman Emergency Management Agency director Tim Sartin said Tuesday that the already-soaked ground throughout the county made conditions ripe for local spot flooding, as storm water runoff pooled at highly-traveled low spots in the City of Cullman Monday while straight-line winds caused isolated structural damage across a wider area.

“We had bunches of trees down and power lines down, and we did have reports of some trees on houses,” said Sartin, noting the storms had toppled a steeple from the Center Grove Missionary Baptist Church near Gold Ridge. “We already had had a lot of rain, which means the ground is still saturated with moisture, and it looks like we may have more storms coming in on Wednesday and Thursday.”

The Huntsville office of the National Weather Service had placed the City of Cullman, along with the county’s southern portion, under a marginal risk for severe Wednesday weather; while the county’s northern fringe was placed under the stepped-up “slight” risk category.

Confidence in precise timing was low late Tuesday for when Wednesday’s round of expected severe weather — including strong to severe thunderstorms with the potential for frequent lightning and damaging gusty winds — might arrive in Cullman County. For real-time updates on potential changes in school scheduling Wednesday and Thursday, follow both city and county school systems across their respective social media feeds.