After the storms that ripped through Crenshaw County Monday evening, many are beginning to wonder if 2017 will merely be a repeat of years passed when it comes to severe weather.

“I truly hope this isn’t the start of a repeat from the first of last year, but if it is, we will make sure that we are ready for it,” said Crenshaw County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) Director Elliott Jones.

“I am glad to report that there were no injuries reported in our county, but we have had some extensive road damage. Please be patient with county road crews as they are working very hard to repair these damaged areas throughout the county.”

Jones says that from Dec. 31 to Jan. 2, Crenshaw County received almost 10 inches of rain, several thunderstorm warnings and one tornado warning.

During the course of Monday evening, Jones says the county saw multiple downed trees and power lines, road closures due to flooding and even a structure fire, possibly caused by lighting strike.

Crenshaw County Engineer Benjie Sanders says his crew has already started and finished work on a few of the damaged unpaved roads throughout the county, and he hopes to have more of them finished this week.

“A lot of it is just minor stuff that’s going to have to be addressed when we get in the area,” Sanders said.

“We hope that by the end of the week we will have most of this main stuff repaired. There were several roads that had some pretty good washes that were hard for traffic to cross, but we’ve already done many repairs.”

Sanders said that no damages were done to paved roads throughout the county, and the damages done to the low-lying areas of the unpaved roads are easily fixable.

“If while traveling through the county you drive up on a barricade, please do not try to go around it,” Jones said.

“I have visited several washout sites that could be extremely hard to see, especially at night, and could potentially cause serious injury and damage a vehicle beyond repair.”

As of yesterday, the EMA and County Engineer’s offices reported the following road updates:

• Ballard Road – closed

• Settlement Road- passable, but damaged

• Moodys Cross Roads-passable, but damaged

• Williams Loop towards Union Creek- passable, but damaged

• Massey Rd. – passable, but damaged

• Bee Creek Rd. – passable, but damaged

• Summerlin Road- passable, but damaged

• Golden Road- passable, but damaged

• Neffs Lane- passable, but damaged

• Swanner Bridge Road – under water

• Guordneck Road- passable, but damaged

• Horse Creek Road- significant damage, but still open to traffic

• Little Horse Creek Road- significant damage, but still open to traffic

• Bolling Road- significant damage, but still open to traffic

• Kelly Road- significant damage, but still open to traffic