Friday storm weather brings hail, felled trees and widespread outages
Published 11:34 am Saturday, May 17, 2025
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Cars are flipped over as tornado damage is seen on Bourbon Road in Somerset, Ky. on May 17, 2025. (Caleb Lowndes / Bowling Green Daily News)
A light pole went down on the greenways trail along cemetery road. Vehicle tracks make it appear a vehicle struck it, noted Debi West, public information officer for the City of Bowling Green. (Photo submitted by the City of Bowling Green)
BY DAVID MAMARIL HOROWITZ
david.horowitz@bgdailynews.com
The Friday night storm weather felled trees, caused widespread power outages and brought large hail across the region.
On Saturday morning, Bowling Green Municipal Utilities reported that a total of 7,200 were impacted by the storms, and among them, 630 remained without power. Also in the morning, Warren Rural Electric Co-Op Corporation reported on X that 24,300 were impacted, 16,222 had power restored, 8,078 members remained without power and 38 poles were broken.
Downed trees made up the main damage the City of Bowling Green identified across the city in last night’s storms, said Debi West, the city’s public information officer.
In Bowling Green, Public Works crews worked all night to clear trees from roadways, chopping them up and taking them back to the agency’s operations center, West said. While BGPW can’t go on private property, something that falls into a roadway becomes the agency’s responsibility to clear, she said.
These teams of two dumped eight 20-yard dumpsters of vegetative debris (trees, branches, etc.) into the landfill, according to the city, West said. Some debris was pushed off to the side that the city will get to on Monday, West added.
The Mount Moriah Cemetery will be closed this weekend due to downed trees, as the city requires special heavy equipment to avoid knocking down grave markers, West said.
A light pole went down on the greenways trail along Cemetery Road; vehicle tracks make it appear a vehicle struck it, West said.
Fire Station 8 and a police cruiser took hail damage, West said. Another cruiser was damaged when a tree fell on it; no one was inside, West added.
Update:
In the morning, Gov. Andy Beshear reported a statewide update on X of 14 weather-related fatalities, 100,476 without power, five counties declaring a state of emergency and minimal roadway impacts. Multiple tornadoes were reported across Kentucky and other states in the region.
Graves Gilbert took “significant damage” at the Main Clinic, at 201 Park St., according to an afternoon social media post. “Patient appointments next week may be impacted, but we will continue to keep you abreast of any updates,” the organization posted.
