Straight-line winds of up to 50 miles per hour tore through the Malden area Wednesday, damaging, houses, businesses and trees.
The National Weather Service in Memphis, Tennessee predicted the powerful west wind gusts before Wednesday’s storm.
“Those storms rolled in right around 12:30 p.m. yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon,” explained NWS Meteorologist Caitlin Dirkes.
Dirkes said there were some reports of wind damage in the area, “some trees down and roof damage from outbuildings with metal or tin roofs, we got a couple of reports of those panels peeling off.”
Dirkes said, however, there was no rotation with this event, but rather straight-line winds in excess of 50 mph.
Malden Public Safety Director Jeff Mitchell said the city of Malden experienced some brief power outages after the storm and sustained minor damage to some buildings and homes.
“We had some downtown buildings damaged. We had several houses with some minor damage and a couple of houses with major damage.”
He explained there was some damage to a couple of city buildings and a street shed, but there were no injuries reported.
“The whole event probably lasted two to three minutes,” said Mitchell, who further explained power was fully restored to area residents within three hours of the storm event.
Officers were out, according to Mitchell, surveying the potential for danger throughout the time of the storm.
“I had weather spotters already in place, and there was no indication of a funnel cloud or anything like that,” said Mitchell. “It was just straight-line winds with heavy rain for that short amount of time.”
According to the Malden Police Department, the damage covered an area of approximately two to three blocks and a width of about a mile.
Along with the several trees that were uprooted, some businesses like the Landess Funeral Home also sustained visible damage.
Cleanup is currently underway according to Mitchell, who said people are now working on getting streets cleaned up and debris hauled away.