The City of Brundidge utility department warehouse received extensive damage during a thunderstorm on Tuesday afternoon.

Jerry Reynolds, utility department head, said the roof was blown off the building and the walls collapsed.

“We know the building is gone, but we won’t know the extent of the damages until we start moving things around,” Reynolds said. “We can see a lot of the damage and we don’t know what’s under all this debris.

“I know that we’ve lost quite a few meters and some of the new LED lights that we had for spares. Right now, everything is wet and it’s supposed to rain some more. We’ve got some equipment that can’t take any more water and we’ve got to get it put somewhere.”

Reynolds said there’s a lot of work ahead because of the large volume of materials kept on hand in the warehouse. In addition to the materials and supplies for the utility department, the facility also warehoused the city’s Christmas decorations and other materials.

“We’ve got to do something with all of this and it’s going to be a big job,” Reynolds said.

Britt Thomas, city manager, said photographs of the damage have been taken and the city’s insurance company has been notified.

“Now, we’ve got to make sure that the area is secured and we’ll go from there,” Thomas said.

The City of Brundidge is a collection center for the National Weather Service. Thomas said, according to the weather gauge at the city’s wastewater treatment plant, 3.6 inches of rain fell in Brundidge in a 24-hour period from 7:30 a.m. Tuesday until 7:30 a.m. Wednesday.

“It really started storming around 4 p.m. while the council was meeting Tuesday,” Thomas said. “The lights flickered several times at City Hall. There were power outages all around town.”

Limbs are down in most areas of the city and trees in several areas.

Thomas said some of the storm sewers and creeks took on too much water, “but it’s wet out there and that’s great.”