Memphis Weather: Storm Leaves Thousands Without Power, Several Houses Damaged

The National Weather Service in Memphis has issued a thunderstorm warning until 5.15 am local time (6.15 am EDT) Sunday and has advised people to move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building for protection.

A thunderstorm that hit Memphis on Saturday morning caused power outages for almost 34,000 Light, Gas and Water customers.

As Memphis Light Gas and Water crew continue to work on the damage, thousands of people stayed without power.

Whitehaven, Hickory Hill, Germantown, Collierville, and South Memphis areas were the most impacted.

"You gon' have to be careful because you see all that stuff on that right there," said Ray Smith, a resident in whose roof a branch sits through, local daily WREG reported. "We're thankful the Lord spared us because she (wife) was laying in the bed and I was by the front door."

Smith said he woke up when he heard debris flying down the road.

"When she heard that evidently this is what really triggered that and that's when she got up and came on out there she was at that door," he said.

He said his bedroom and bathroom were damaged and there were buckets all over the house to collect water.

"I had to put that bucket there to catch that water dripping from there," he said.

"I was awakened by the noise,” Larry McIntyre , another resident said, Local Memphis reported. "It was kind of rough, it scared my wife and my granddaughter.”

He walked out of the house and saw a huge tree fallen on his roof.

"It just sound like a Big Bang, we came out and inspected it and looked up and see that the tree had fallen on the roof, knocked down my fence as well," he said adding that he grateful to god that they are still alive.

Monrow Williams, a resident of Whitehaven said, "I was really going to McDonalds to get something to eat and I didn't know they were shut down like this and then once I seen those power lines, stuff like that.”

A funeral home went up in flames just an hour before the funeral service of Crystal Hudson, 39, which may have been sparked by lightning from the storm, the fire officials said, local daily WREG reported.

“They got her body out, but everything else was burned,” Matt Griffin, Hudson’s brother said.

“It must have been pretty rough because they brought a second and third engine up about 30 minutes after I got here,” Dwayne young, Hudson’s uncle said. “My girlfriend actually got here first before anybody right about the time it happened, and what else do you think? I mean first of all, what are the odds of this happening and getting her out? That’s all that mattered.”

The Memphis Fire Department haven’t confirmed if there were other people at home when it caught fire.