Winfield taking stock of storm damage, getting repairs under way

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Much of the South was ravaged by heavy storms and torrential rain over the past day, but some of the worst damage happened in Marion County’s Winfield.

Clean-up crews and power company workers were out in force early this morning and through the evening, moving fallen limbs, getting tarps up on damaged roofs and getting electric poles back up and running after the storm tore through Winfield just before 7 p.m.

Downtown was hardest hit, with blown-off roofs, windswept walls and other debris scattered around city thoroughfares.

Winfield Mayor Randy Price said the worst of the damage was dealt to small businesses and city property.

“The city owns this antique mall building down here,” Price said. “(The storm) blew the west wall out of it, and that wall’s 70 or 80 feet, maybe 100 feet long. A lot of the small businesses lost roofs and a had a lot of structural damage done.”

Bama Offroad owner Dawn Guin said they’ve been picking up the pieces all day, and they’ll be doing so until they’re back up and running.

“This building has been in my husband’s family way back,” Guin said. “It was a car dealership. I worked here in high school and my husband worked here. So it’s just kind of a staple in town. Before it was Bama Offroad, it was a car lot barbecue, so a lot of people may recognize it that way. We mostly had damage in the front, so we’ll be OK.”

National Weather Service teams are en route to the area, and will determine whether the damage was caused by the storm itself or by an official tornado.