Published: December 09, 2009 08:42 pm      

Strong weather causes trouble for many in Pulaski County

Winds reaching as high as 50 m.p.h. whipped through Pulaski County yesterday, leaving a trail of damage in many areas.

A teen girl and her unborn baby were killed yesterday afternoon after they were trapped under a fallen tree near downtown Somerset. (See related article.) There were no other reports of injuries.

A local marina which had already been obliterated by heavy rains last spring was damaged once again when winds ripped the boat dock apart and caused a portion of a roof to collapse.

The Buck Creek Boat Dock at Omega Park was damaged last May by rapidly rising waters. Yesterday, Gigi Zink, who owns the dock with her husband, Willy, said the winds at the dock were so heavy that she thought a tornado was coming.

The dock containing several houseboats was blown to the opposite side of the lake, the marina’s walkway was “all broken to pieces,” Zink said, and a covered part of the marina sustained damage to its roof — in the same area where the roof collapsed in the spring.

“This is a bad spot for a marina,” Zink said. “We didn’t have this when we were at Buck Creek.”

The Corps of Engineers forced the Zinks to move their marina about eight miles upstream from its original location several years ago when the water level of Lake Cumberland was lowered as repairs began at Wolf Creek Dam. The Zinks have now experienced two costly disasters at their marina — neither of which could be covered by their insurance since the damage was a result of “acts of God.” Zink said the Corps of Engineers hasn’t helped her and her husband through either disaster, either.

“I’m at the end of my rope and the end of my pocketbook,” a frustrated Zink said yesterday evening. She and her husband are now considering selling the marina.

Today, the Zinks will begin the process of permanently moving their boat dock across the lake, where there is an “elbow” in the shoreline to shelter the dock from the wind.

Elsewhere in the county, trees and limbs were blown down and several power outages were reported.

Pulaski County Public Safety Director Tiger Robinson was out of town yesterday, but he said he heard that a tree had fallen onto a house in the Oak Hill area. A dispatcher at the 911 Communications Center couldn’t confirm that report.

The windy day followed a day of heavy rains, which, according to meteorologist Anthony Richey of the Jackson Weather Center, contributed to the number of fallen trees.

“Because of the rain that fell on the previous day, the top soil level was very shallow,” Richey said. “So when the trees started rocking in the wind, it didn’t take much for them to tumble down.”

The previous day’s rains caused minor flooding in several areas of Pulaski County, including a portion of the Ridge Hill Trails subdivision off Thurman Road and areas on South Coal Pit Road in Shopville.

Richey said his office had received several reports of “extensive damage” in this part of the state.

Winds at the Lake Cumberland Regional Airport off Monticello Street in Somerset were recorded at 50 m.p.h., Richey said.

“This was not a typical event at all for this time of year,” he said. “We get stronger winds at times, but it’s unusual that it was this widespread.”

Richey said the high winds were caused by a rapid decrease in atmospheric pressure in the area.

The same system created snowstorms in other areas of the nation, but no wintry weather is expected here, Richey said — at least not this week.

“We should see a layer of low clouds (Wednesday night), and then those will move out and things will clear up,” he said.